Stats & Facts: A look back on the victory over Angers

The Parc, a bad omen for Angers

After leading for most of the game on Friday, SCO eventually fell to defeat in Les Rouge et Bleu’s headquarters. And that’s not by chance given that the Parc des Princes isn’t a lucky ground for Les Angevins, who have never won there in the 14 matches played (12 wins for Les Rouge et Bleu and 2 draws) and have lost in each of their last 9 trips, since the 2-2 draw that brought the 1980-81 season to a close on 2 June 1981. The club from the capital extended its 22 match unbeaten run against  Angers in Ligue 1 (15 wins, 7 draws), the club’s longest run without defeat against the same side in the top flight, with 11 consecutive victories in the league against SCO. Les Rouge et Bleu’s last defeat against Les Angevins dates back to 12 January 1975 and a 3-1 loss at the Anjou. Since that day, Les Parisiens are on a 26 match unbeaten run in all competitions and on a 13 match winning streak against Angers, the second best record in the club’s history, behind 17 consecutive victories against Nantes. Mauricio Pochettino’s side have picked up 8 consecutive wins at home in Ligue 1, Les Rouge et Bleu’s longest run in the top flight since August 2018- March 2019 (15).

End of the drought for Kylian Mbappé

Without a goal in his last four Ligue 1 matches, his worst run in Ligue 1, since March-May 2018 (6), the World Champion brought this bad run of games to an end as he secured the victory for his side. Equally picking up a magnificent assist for the equaliser,  he scored and got an assist in the same league match for the third time in 2021, after the 22 January against Montpellier (2 goals, 1 assist) and 10 April at Strasbourg (1 goal, 1 assist). The Paris number 7 has been directly involved in 27 goals in Ligue 1 this calendar year (20 goals, 7 assists), that’s at least four more than any other player in the top flight. As he found the back of the net for the 7th time in his Paris career against Angers, he now leads the goal scoring table against SCO, now 1 goal ahead of François M’Pelé. With his powerful header that got the equaliser, Danilo Pereira scored his third league goal in Paris Saint-Germain colours, each of them have come from a corner and this was his first at the Parc des Princes.

A spectacle both on the Pitch… and off of it 

For the match against Les Angevins, Paris Saint-Germain celebrated the 15 athletes from the Women’s football, handball and judo teams that brought home medals from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Canadian footballers Stéphanie Labbé, Jordyn Huitema and Ashley Lawrence (gold) and Sweden’s Amanda Ilestedt (silver), French handball players Yann Genty, Vincent Gérard, Nedim Remili, Luka and Nikola Karabatic (gold), Demark’s Mikkel Hansen and Henrik Toft Hansen (silver) and Spain’s Ferran Solé (bronze), and the French judokas Amandine Buchard (individual silver and team gold), Romane Dicko and Teddy Riner (individual bronze and team gold) were welcomed by Paris Saint-Germain Président Nasser Al-Khelaïfi. The 15 athletes, as well as the four French Paralympic medalists Charles-Antoine Kouakou (gold, athletics, 400 metres T20), Helios Latchoumanya (judo, bronze in -90kg B3), Trésor Gauthier Makunda (athletics, bronze, 400 mètres T11 in Tokyo with his guide Lucas Mathonat) and Sandrine Martinet (judo, silver in -48 kg B2) then went on a lap of honour. A particularly memorable evening for the latter, who “kicked-off” the match alongside Teddy Riner.