Cruijff-Beenhakker situation at PSG, which wins thanks to beardless Messi

Johan Cruijff did it in 1980 to Leo Beenhakker, then coach of Ajax. When the Amsterdammers were trailing 3-1 in a home game against FC Twente, technical advisor Cruijff descended from the stands to take a seat next to Beenhakker in the dugout and tell him what needed to be improved.

After Cruijff’s intervention, Ajax turned the deficit into a 5-3 victory, but the incident was mostly seen as a breach of duty for coach Beenhakker. The latter said years later that he “perhaps should have hit Cruijff on the head afterwards.”

Thanks to Luis Campos, technical director of Paris Saint-Germain, on Sunday afternoon thoughts went back to that moment more than 42 years ago. During the home game with Lille, Campos suddenly left his grandstand seat to coach the PSG players from the sidelines.

PSG was trailing 3-2 at the time, some 20 minutes before the end of the match. Campos was pacing around coach Christophe Galtier’s box, expressing his displeasure with wild arm gestures and shouting several instructions to the home team.

Watch below as Johan Cruijff took a seat next to Leo Beenhakker during Ajax-FC Twente in November 1980.

Like Ajax in 1980, Paris Saint-Germain then won the match after all. The French superpower owed this to the team’s two biggest stars: Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi.

Mbappé signed for the 3-3 with his second goal a few minutes before time, after which Messi, who had stood out in part because he had shaved off his trademark beard, ensured victory after all with an unparalleled free kick in injury time.

That the win for PSG was in danger at all was remarkable, as initially there seemed to be no problem for Galtier’s team. Within 20 minutes, Mbappé and Neymar had ensured a 2-0 lead.

The day after the painful defeat, Neymar visited a poker tournament and ate at fast-food restaurant McDonald’s, according to photos that appeared on social media. Mbappé had urged his teammates to choose rest and regularity ahead of the return game against Bayern.

The game with Lille ended unpleasantly for Neymar. Early in the second half, he was injured after a foul by Benjamin André. Crying, he left the field on a stretcher.

So without Neymar, Paris Saint-Germain still had to work hard to avoid losing points. Lille had turned things around after the early deficit through goals by Bafodé Diakité, Jonathan David and Jonathan Bamba.

That they still won may provide some relief from criticism of coach Galtier, who is top of the French league with PSG but had lost the last three games.

For the same money, Campos’ intervention means that the coach’s position will only come under more pressure.