PARIS — The excuses are there, the mitigating circumstances and the shallow solaces, for those determined to find them.
Maybe it would all have been different had Neymar been here, and not in Brazil, resting and recovering from surgery on his foot. Maybe he would have been able to inspire Paris Saint-Germain to victory against Real Madrid on home turf, even if he proved unable to do so three weeks ago in hostile territory.
Maybe if Marco Verratti had been able to control his temper, rather than charging at the German referee Felix Brych, his face bright with fury, simply because he had not been afforded a free kick, P.