I have watched this replay dozens of times, and I still have no idea what Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was thinking during Sunday’s Ligue 1 match against Strasbourg.
The Paris Saint-Germain player had opened the scoring in the match with a 13th-minute goal, but later in the first half, he seemingly stopped teammate Christopher Nkunku from scoring a goal.
Nkunku’s attempt cleared the keeper and went towards goal. In real time, it looked like a possible cross to Choupo-Moting. All Choupo-Moting had to do was tap in the point-blank attempt.
Yet, he seemingly stopped the ball at the goal line and made no real attempt to complete the goal. It was so weird.
We could call this an embarrassing miss (because it was), but really, Choupo-Moting shouldn’t have touched the ball at all. It was going in. One more bounce, and that ball was in the back of the net for a Nkunku goal.
The internet was quick to throw around match-fixing accusations, but the internet loves to make match-fixing accusations about anything.
That was a weird play — an unspeakably weird play.
PSG and Strasbourg would draw, 2-2.
