Lionel Messi unleashed a trademark free-kick deep into second-half stoppage time to settle a whirligig of a game against Lille in Paris Saint-Germain's favour on Sunday afternoon.
The 36-year-old Argentine, hitherto a spectral presence in the hurly-burly, looped the ball over the six-man wall, past the despairing dive of Lille goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier and it went into the net off the inside of the left hand post. 4-3 to the Ligue 1 pacesetters.
Revenge served dry ice cold for it was Messi's dart forward that had created the free-kick.
In a rare moment of animation he surged goalwards and Benjamin Andre, whose hefty challenge on Neymar early in the second half forced the Brazilian off on a stretcher, pulled Messi back 25 metres out.
As Messi clenched his fists and ran over to the right wing to savour redemption, the entire PSG bench – including coach Christophe Galtier – raced along the touchline to mob the veteran.
Drama
Such drama demanded concomitant theatrics. And the Parc des Princes faithful, who had been as quiet as Messi during a large part of the match, exploded into delirium.
For posterity the scoresheet will show that PSG's weapons grade front troika of Kylian Mbappé, Neymar and Messi brought them the victory that ended a three-match losing streak and a temporary eight-point lead over second-placed Marseille in the race for the 2023 Ligue 1 crown.
⌛️ 𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐈𝐑𝐄 ❤️💙
— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_inside) February 19, 2023
C'est fini ! Le Paris Saint-Germain s'impose 🆚 Lille !
⚽️⚽️ @KMbappe
⚽️ @neymarjr
⚽️ Leo Messi #PSGLOSC I 4-3 pic.twitter.com/Rqc8kL9fZz
But the result masked a disconcerting schizophrenia.
The hosts took the lead through Mbappé after 11 minutes. Latching onto a pass from Neymar on the left-hand side of the Lille penalty area, the 24-year-old France international seemed well marshalled but he managed to scythe through two defenders and slide the ball under Chevalier.
Six minutes later Neymar finished off a slick counterattack to double the advantage.
But the 2-0 lead belied the physiognomy of the proceedings.
Barely after kick-off, in Lille's first assault on the PSG penalty area, Timothy Weah forced PSG goalkeeper Gigi Donnarumma to parry away a goal-bound shot and Jonathan David tried to be too clever with a lob over Donnarumma instead of placing the ball either side of the Italian.
Once they had established their cushion, PSG allowed Lille to get a foothold. Donnarumma had to move quickly to his right to palm away David's glancing header in the 21st minute.
Three minutes later though the visitors had the reward their resilience deserved when Bafode Diakite headed home Angel Gomes' cross from the left.
Comeback
Shortly after Neymar was stretchered off, Lille drew level.
Marco Verratti pulled back Tiago Djalo in the area and David guided the ball from the penalty spot into the left hand corner of Donnarumma's goal.
Lille, revitalised, pressed. Mbappé, shorn of Neymar and with Messi a wraith, tried to rouse the silent stands.
They obliged briefly but they were quelled anew when Jonathan Bamba ran onto Gomes' sumptuous pass over the top and thrashed past Donnarumma to make it 3-2 with 20 minutes remaining.
"We came through it," Mbappé told the French broadcaster Amazon Prime.
"We made lots of mistakes and lost concentration too often and against a quality side you pay dearly for that.
"But we showed that even when we are not at our best and the context is not exactly favourable we can always find a way."
Lille will rue opting for containment and preferring to exploit counterattacks.
They paid the price for their lack of ambition three minutes from time when Mbappé scored his second and the leveller at 3-3.
That would have provided a compelling coda.
But Messi made it transcendental.
