Neymar shines again for PSG ahead of Champions League return – he is a player to be celebrated

Player of the weekend: Neymar ran the show for PSG against Montpellier, industrious and impish in equal measure. He is our pick from around Europe’s top five leagues this weekend

Neymar pulled out the tricks during PSG’s thrashing of Montpellier (Getty)

The match: Paris Saint-Germain 5-0 Montpellier

The player: Neymar

On Sunday night, Neymar celebrated his impending 28th birthday at a Parisian nightclub so wildly ostentatious it would make Jay Gatsby blush. And so it made sense that, the evening before in a Ligue 1 match against Montpellier, the Brazilian arrived at the Parc des Princes ready to party. He even died his hair bright pink for the ocassion.

Before we get stuck in, let us first preempt some of the more predictable criticisms. No, unlike Erling Braut Håland, Mohamed Salah and Karim Benzema, he did not score this weekend. It was his first blank in seven matches, in fact. He assisted just one of Paris Saint-Germain’s five goals. He had a blazing row with the referee at half-time, for which he was lucky not to be sent off. And, if we are being totally honest, the bright bubblegum barnet didn’t especially suit him.

But let’s not get hung up on numbers. Or the personalities. Or the hair colour. Because Neymar was at his utterly irrepressible best in the rout of Montpellier: industrious, impish and pure box office entertainment from start to finish. When he is in the mood for it, there is no player in Europe more exciting to watch.

And how he was in the mood for it. That he, for once, failed to hit the back of the net is only because his unquenchable thirst for the ball saw him drop deeper and deeper down the field. He spent much of the match collecting possession somewhere around the halfway line, as Pablo Sarabia and Kylian Mbappé darted greedily forwards and Montpellier’s wide-eyed defenders shouted and swore and prayed for full-time.

How did they react to Neymar’s ever more incisive sorties forward? By shoving him. And tripping him. And kicking him. They would eventually finish the match with nine men — goalkeeper Dimitry Bertaud and Joris Chotard both seeing red — while watching Neymar attempt to pick his way through the assaults and ankle-breakers increasingly came to resemble one of the battle scenes from Hacksaw Ridge.

Not that he could be stopped. Téji Savanier found that out the hard way, midway through the first-half. As Neymar picked up the ball in midfield yet again, the Montpellier midfielder crudely shoulder-barged the Brazilian, long having given up attempting to win the ball fairly. Neymar’s response? To take a quick free-kick, run hard in the retreating Savanier’s direction and then nimbly sidestep around him.

When you come at the king, you best not miss.

Of PSG’s five goals, Neymar was only directly involved in one, threading a sublimely weighted through-ball between two defenders for Mbappé to run onto. He had numerous chances to score one of his own, only to twice graze the post. No matter: he was at his most gloriously gratuitous and the night belonged to him and him alone. After all, why nudge a simple pass to an overlapping team-mate when you can dummy around your marker, humiliate him with a couple of insouciant stopovers and then rainbow flick your way out of the ensuing cul-de-sac?

This being Neymar, there had to be one tantrum. He was booked early on for dissent after the referee, Jérôme Brisard, appeared to tick him off for showboating, and could not hide his contempt as he hobbled his way down the tunnel at half-time. “I’m playing football and I didn’t say a fucking thing and yet I get a fucking yellow?” he spat at Brisard, who calmly told him to be patient. “Fuck ‘be patient’,” he angrily shot back.

Making his feelings known to the referee (Getty)

Fortunately, Brisard turned the other cheek and Neymar was able to resume his antics in the second-half. We must enjoy Neymar while he is in this frame of mind. Because in two weeks’ time the Champions League returns, with all the additional pressure that entails. If Neymar fails to single-handedly decide the tie against Borussia Dortmund he will inevitably be judged harshly. If he misplaces a flick or a trick, even more so.

But, for now, Neymar can cycle through his full repertoire of party pieces, as PSG stroll their way to yet another Ligue 1 title. How he has turned things around from the beginning of the season, when he was lustily jeered by the Parc des Princes every single time he touched the ball. PSG’s fans have long grown used to megastars passing through Paris like ships in the night, but even they had grown tired on Neymar’s public courtship with Barcelona. Once a proud symbol of their unstinting international ambition, Neymar had grown into a personification of everything wrong with the club.

Neymar is a player to be celebrated (Getty)

No longer. How can one contemplate such fears in the face of a performance like this, brimming with flair and fun? This was a virtuoso display that reminded everybody that, above everything, watching football is supposed to be fun. By the end, Neymar had earned himself that ludicrous birthday bash at the Palais de Tokyo.

Honourable mentions:

Erling Braut Håland and Jadon Sancho

Borussia Dortmund 5-0 Union Berlin

The teen tearaways were at it again (Getty)

They have only done it again. On Saturday against the hapless Union Berlin, Borussia Dortmund’s teen tearaways continued to run amok, with Sancho opening the scoring before a Håland brace. The Norwegian, who may or may not have a famous father, has now scored seven goals in three Bundesliga appearances. That is already more than Philippe Coutinho, Breel Embolo and Andrej Kramarić.

Then again, speak to an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer truther and they would likely insist Odion Ighalo would have scored a hat-trick.

Jordan Henderson

Liverpool 4-0 Southampton

Liverpool’s captain fantastic (Getty)

Remember when Henderson was a figure of fun at Anfield? When he was considered out of his depth? A liability? A joke? Not anymore. So long viewed with suspicion for the heinous crime of not being Steven Gerrard, now he is poised to go down in history as the inspirational captain of the greatest Liverpool side in history.

He was brilliant against Southampton. He has been brilliant all season. There is nobody more worthy of lifting the Premier League trophy come May.

Filippo Falco

Lecce 4-0 Torino

Behold ‘the Messi from Salento’ (Getty)

It has been a tough few months for Falco. Newly promoted Lecce have been rooted at the bottom of Serie A for the majority of the campaign. And Falco — such an important player for I Giallorossi in the second tier last season — has struggled to make as much of an impression on the biggest stage. Not the best going for a player rather optimistically nicknamed ‘the Messi from Salento’.

But on Sunday, Falco scored a goal even the great Argentine would be proud of. With Lecce leading Torino 2-0 midway through the second-half, Falco received the ball on the edge of the box with his back to goal. He could have laid it off, but instead edged away from his marker, before slashing a ridiculously powerful hit across Salvatore Sirigu and into the top right corner of the goal.

Lecce would score one more — courtesy of a Gianluca Lapadula penalty — to pull three points clear of the drop zone.