Eric's embarrassing miss puts PSG party on hold

PARIS - With star striker Kylian Mbappe on the bench, Paris Saint-Germain didn't much look like a team that wanted to seal the French league title on Sunday.

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who started in place of Mbappe, had one of the worst misses seen at the stadium, as PSG's title celebrations were delayed for at least another week after a 2-2 draw with Strasbourg.

Amid disbelieving looks from teammates, with the score at 1-1 in the first half, Choupo-Moting accidentally prevented a goal for his team despite the ball being about to cross the line.

Turning from hero to villain after scoring the opener, the forward stopped a chip over the Strasbourg goalkeeper from Christopher Nkunku, and gently nudged the ball onto the post before it was cleared.

"I thought that the defender was maybe going to take the ball and, after, I hesitated to take the ball, I asked myself if I was offside and everything went very quickly," Choupo-Moting said.

"I touched the ball but it went onto the post and that is a real shame because I think that Nkunku's effort was going in on its own. I am sorry for that but we need to continue and keep our heads up.

"I wondered if I was offside and it all happened very fast. I touched the ball, it hit the post and, well, it's a real shame because the ball was going in. Sorry about that," Choupo-Moting told Canal+.

Without many of its star players, the Parisian club dropped points at home for the first time this season. PSG coach Thomas Tuchel decided to leave Mbappe on the bench until the 59th minute, a surprising decision especially after the league's top scorer found the net in his seven previous league matches, and in the absence of injured forwards Angel Di Maria, Neymar and Edinson Cavani.

"We are using him too much," Tuchel said. "Everybody is surprised but he played nine consecutive matches, with the scoring duties. We need to protect the players. It was necessary because Kylian felt a muscular problem over the past three matches."

"He is an excellent back-up player to have but if you start a lot for PSG you need to have confidence and he lacks that," Tuchel said of Choupo-Moting.

"He was very unfortunate because he started very well and then he stopped that ball on the line which would have made it 2-1 for us.

"I don't know why he did that. In English you say it's Murphy's law."

Still a huge 20 points clear at the summit and with a game in hand, PSG will now hope to secure the eighth league title in its history when it goes to Lille this weekend.

A point will be enough in that game, but PSG should have finished the job here - Choupo-Moting's miss was one of the worst you are ever likely to see, while Dani Alves hit the bar after the break.

After Lille's draw at Reims earlier in the day, PSG would have wrapped up a sixth league trophy in seven seasons with a win but instead needed a late equalizer from Thilo Kehrer to avoid an embarrassing loss.

After Choupo-Moting's blunder, Strasbourg kept pushing and earned a corner kick in the 38th that PSG defenders failed to clear properly.

Waiting outside the box, Anthony Goncalves calmly walked toward the ball and hammered it back to silence Parc des Princes with a powerful strike that left goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon stranded.

Tuchel was dismissed 12 minutes into the second half for an angry outburst following a dangerous tackle from Kenny Lala on Nkunku. Choupo-Moting left the pitch soon after to make way for Mbappe in the final half-hour.

The France international threatened immediately, putting Strasbourg on the back foot on both wings and seeing an effort stopped by 'keeper Matz Sels.

Veteran rightback Dani Alves then hit the bar with a right-footed volley and Kehrer finally snatched the equalizer from a corner in the 82nd minute when he planted a header into the back of the net after being left unmarked.

AP/AFP