Paoletti's Two Beats Paris

Two. The number that decides matches, the number that separates a forward from a mere participant — and on Sunday night at the PSG Stadium it belonged entirely to Francisco Paoletti, who scored twice in Nîmes Olympique's 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain and walked away with a rating of 9.5.

The statistics of the evening describe a kind of siege. Paris had the ball for 74% of the match, struck 18 shots to Nîmes' 7, and generated an expected-goals figure of 3.09. Nîmes, meanwhile, completed 211 passes to Paris's 588 and committed 20 fouls. On paper, this was a mismatch. On the pitch, it was a heist, and Paoletti was its architect.

His contribution was not the work of a poacher waiting for scraps. Four shots, three on target, and 13.1 kilometres covered — a striker's movement measured in sweat as much as in goals. Twice he found the space that Paris, for all their possession, could not close. When Ben Gamliel came on in the 56th minute and provided an assist, the shape of the evening shifted further towards the improbable.

Paris will point to their own. Ousmane Miguelgorry was excellent, with an assist, four key passes and seven dribbles across 12.9 kilometres, and Jameleddine Harti scored and dribbled with menace. Nicolás González also found the net before being replaced on 81 minutes. But Clément Gerber took five shots worth 0.71 expected goals and found nothing; Miguelgorry's three shots yielded only 0.6. The misses mounted, and Nîmes held.

João Martinha, once of Paris, made ten clearances in the Nîmes goal — a quiet revenge for a man who played a single game there. Malick Bâ ran 14.4 kilometres in support of Paoletti, and the substitute Gamliel, borrowed from Hapoel, justified every word written about him when he arrived.

Paoletti came to Nîmes on a free transfer from Woking in July. Five games, five goals. On a night when Paris had everything but the scoreline, he had the only thing that mattered: the ball, twice, in the net.