Tag: PSG

  • ‘We were far superior’ – Enrique insists PSG ‘deserved more’

    ‘We were far superior’ – Enrique insists PSG ‘deserved more’

    “Of course, we are going to do it.”

    Paris St-Germain boss Luis Enrique ended his post-match interview after their remarkable defeat by Liverpool with a bit of positivity. But the feeling was he was not being entirely serious.

    PSG pummelled the Reds for 87 minutes in the Champions League last 16 first leg. Then Liverpool netted the only goal.

    Enrique’s side had 27 shots – the second-most on record (from 2003-04) by a side in a Champions League knockout match in which they failed to score and lost.

    Unfortunately for Enrique and PSG, they also hold the record for that with 30 shots in their semi-final defeat by Borussia Dortmund last season.

    Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson, named the man of the match, had made nine saves.

    PSG’s Gianluigi Donnarumma made none, conceding Liverpool’s only shot on target from Harvey Elliott with three minutes to go.

    It ended PSG’s 22-game unbeaten run and 10-game winning streak in all competitions.

    Enrique said: “I don’t think it’s too difficult to analyse tonight’s game. We were far superior to Liverpool.

    “We created more chances and produced a complete performance against one of Europe’s top sides. Football can be unfair at times.

    “Without a doubt [they can go through]. We’ve only played the first leg. We’re a side with nothing to lose. If we can replicate tonight’s performance, we can qualify.”

    PSG forwards Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele, especially in the first half, were electric – and managed 13 shots, six on target, between them.

    “We deserved more,” said Enrique.

    “Their best player was their goalkeeper – he was magnificent today. Today wasn’t a game based on the stats or the details.

    “We were far superior. We didn’t allow Liverpool to play. They were better than us for the first five minutes but, apart from that, it was us on top.”

    Liverpool boss Arne Slot said: “Had we got a draw, we would still have been the lucky ones. They were much the better team today.

    “It’s a good result for us, but we felt the quality of Paris.

    “Every underlying stat shows you they were the best side in the Champions League. I wasn’t surprised at how good they were.

    “We were not under-par, it was just down to the quality of the opposition. They showed it today. Luis Enrique has created an incredible team here.”

    Georgia winger Kvaratskhelia, 24, was sensational on his ninth appearance for the club.

    He had been linked with a move to Liverpool, but instead moved to PSG from Napoli for £59m in January.

    Kvaratskhelia had a combined 54 goals and assists in 107 games for Napoli and helped them to win the Serie A title in 2022-23 – after a £9m move from Dinamo Batumi.

    “Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is a defender’s worst nightmares as he can go both ways,” said ex-Reds defender Stephen Warnock on BBC Radio 5 Live.

    “He is breathtaking at times and he looks effortless at times. I was surprised Liverpool didn’t go in for him in January.”

    Kvaratskhelia’s running caused Liverpool no end of problems – and he had a goal disallowed by the video assistant referee for offside, as well as being denied by Alisson four times.

    He played on both wings and through the middle at various stages of the game, before coming off in the 78th minute with his team leading.

    Football writer Rory Smith, speaking on the BBC’s Champions League Match of the Day show, said: “Kvaratskhelia looked like a nightmare to play against tonight.

    “The thing that makes him so different is you don’t know what he’s going to do.”

  • PSG’s post-Mbappe era, no ‘clans’ and foreign stars’ French buy-in

    PSG’s post-Mbappe era, no ‘clans’ and foreign stars’ French buy-in

    Rarely in the past decade and a half of Qatari ownership have Paris St-Germain entered the spring with this kind of confidence.

    On Saturday evening, the runaway Ligue 1 leaders wasted little time in dismantling a Lille side who also had a midweek Champions League tie to look forward to, scoring four goals in what manager Luis Enrique would later call the team’s “best half of the season”.

    Victory against Les Dogues, who could only muster a consolation goal through Jonathan David 10 minutes from time, was more than simply a dress rehearsal before Liverpool’s visit to the French capital on Wednesday for the first leg of their last-16 tie.

    Lille, who have notably beaten both Real and Atletico Madrid in Europe this season, were swept aside as PSG continued their seemingly inevitable march towards completing an unbeaten campaign on home soil.

    The all-conquering form of a rejuvenated PSG would have seemed unlikely at the start of the season.

    While the post-Kylian Mbappe era arguably started midway through last season, given that the France captain was mostly spared for high-profile matches at that point, replacing his output and leading role remained the major uncertainty on the eve of the new campaign.

    That task was made all the more pressing by the absence of a centre-forward in name during most of the autumn.

    Portuguese international Goncalo Ramos was sidelined for three months with an ankle injury, while Randal Kolo Muani was progressively phased out of the team, eventually culminating in his loan move to Juventus this winter.

    Initially, it was Bradley Barcola, from the left wing, who took up the mantle by scoring 10 times in the first 11 league games of the campaign.

    Having carried over his goalscoring form to international duty amid Mbappe’s absence from Les Bleus, the 22-year-old was looking increasingly at ease in carrying the now-Real Madrid man’s responsibilities for club and country.

    His form only faintly translated to Champions League fixtures, though, as was the case for the rest of the team. Successive false-nine experiments, notably involving Kang-in Lee and Ousmane Dembele, were proving mostly ineffective as the team registered just one win in the first five European matchdays.

    The team’s league stage campaign, branded by Enrique “unjust” given the tough draw they faced, was stunted by an inability to capitalise on their dominance in possession in most matches.

    A disastrous early exit in January was an increasingly credible prospect, until the pieces of the Spaniard’s plan finally began to fall into place.

    The Parisians’ free-scoring run since January has included 18 goals in four European encounters, a figure admittedly inflated by Brest’s unfortunate collapse in their play-off tie.

    Leading the reversal in fortunes has been Dembele’s newly found confidence in front of goal, with the 27-year-old finally realising the potential of his talent.

    The France international, despite arguably being the face of the club with Mbappe gone, has scarcely been given any kind of preferential treatment.

    His reinvention has been all the more unlikely given what was an ostensibly fraught rapport with his manager only a few months ago.

    He was notably dropped for the trip to face Arsenal in October, for arriving late to training, a move which Enrique later branded more recently as “the best thing I’ve done to him”.

    After a needless sending off in the defeat by Bayern Munich, Dembele was again relegated to the bench for the following league games.

    Tensions were eventually appeased, though, as the former Barcelona player worked his way back into the team and claimed the unlikely false-nine role as his own.

    With 18 goals across all competitions since the turn of the year, the 27-year-old has scored more in two months than any single season of his to date.

    While his talent has seldom been called into question, Dembele has, virtually overnight, managed to erase the erratic decision-making, which plagued the first decade of his career.

    “It’s a bit of everything. It’s down to my positioning, but also a change in mentality,” the forward told the Ligue 1 broadcaster on Saturday night.

    Dembele’s purple patch has also been aided by the team of young talents around him suddenly clicking into gear.

    The pivot away from buying established names hasn’t necessarily meant a decrease in activity in the transfer window, though.

    Last summer’s arrivals of teenagers Joao Neves and Doue, along with Ecuadorian centre-back Willian Pacho, did not come cheap, and Kvaratskhelia’s signing from Napoli cost the Parisians a reported 70m euros (£58m).

    Gone are the “clans” that divided past PSG squads, with Enrique now able to mould a team of young (and evidently willing) talents around his philosophy.

    Of those who started in last weekend’s hard-fought win in Lyon, only the 30-year-old Marquinhos was older than 26. Impressively, virtually all of the new arrivals from abroad have had little issue giving post-match interviews in French.

    Few in the team encapsulate the willingness to integrate and adapt according to the team’s needs better than Neves. The creative-minded midfielder, while standing out as part of a three-man block alongside the equally impressive Vitinha, has filled in more than serviceably at both right-back and left-back when called upon.

    The Benfica academy product, who has set up nine goals in all competitions this season, has displayed a technical ease in slicing through defences and evading pressure only rivalled by his compatriot.

    His assist for Dembele against Lille, setting up the Frenchman despite finding himself virtually face-to-face with goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier, was emblematic of his selfless, all-action displays since arriving.

    Not all of the summer recruits hit the ground running straight away. French youth international Doue had already established himself as one of the continent’s most promising talents even before joining from Rennes this summer, but a limited impact in his first few months in the capital drew increasing criticism over the necessity of his costly arrival.

    An impressive display against Salzburg in December, though, was the catalyst for Doue’s increased involvement and upturn in form.

    The 19-year-old was key in three of PSG’s four goals against Lille on Saturday, adding his name onto the scoresheet with a strike into the top corner.

    At ease both on the wing and further back in midfield, Doue has bounced back from an uncertain start to life in the capital.

    Barcola has also bounced back from a dip in form during the winter months, perhaps aided by the fact that the goalscoring burden is now shared across the frontline.

    The arrival of fierce competition in Kvaratskhelia in January also appears to have kick-started his output again, with his tally now standing at 17 goals and 11 assists this term.

    Sitting behind the team’s impressive firepower, though, is also a defence with new-found assurance. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, for instance, has appeared increasingly reliable and comfortable with the ball at his feet, far from the high-profile errors of past European campaigns.

    Barring some rare lapses in concentration, the 23-year-old Pacho has adapted seamlessly to the physically demanding nature of Ligue 1 after joining from Eintracht Frankfurt.

    His composure and workrate in particular have complemented captain Marquinhos more effectively than the more experienced centre-backs PSG have signed over the past few years.

    Having mostly seen off domestic opposition since their upturn in form, Wednesday night’s game against Premier League leaders LIverpool will be the sternest test yet.

    “It could have been a Champions League final,” as the PSG manager noted on Saturday.

    The Asturian is right to view the tie as a clash of equals.

  • PSG loan France forward Kolo Muani to Juventus

    Juventus signed Randal Kolo Muani on loan from Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday as the France forward seeks playing time away from the French capital.

    The two clubs released statements to confirm the deal, which will see Kolo Muani stay in Turin until June 30.

    The transfer had been held up because PSG had already filled their quota of players who could be loaned out to foreign clubs at the same time.

    However, the confirmation of Kolo Muani’s loan deal being completed follows reports in France on Wednesday that PSG’s Spanish defender Juan Bernat had rescinded his contract with the club and turned a loan move to Villarreal into a permanent transfer.

    Kolo Muani, 26, has remained a regular for the French national team despite starting just twice for PSG in the first half of the season.

    He has scored just two goals for the French champions since the campaign began, and has played just 78 minutes since the start of November.

    Kolo Muani joined from Eintracht Frankfurt in a reported 90 million-euro ($93.7m) transfer at the start of last season and netted nine goals in 40 appearances in his first campaign in Paris.

    His move to Turin will boost Juve’s forward line which has been hit with injuries.

    Thiago Motta’s team have had to play without a recognised striker in recent fixtures, and were toothless in a 0-0 draw against Club Brugge in the Champions League on Tuesday.

    Juve are currently fifth in Serie A and travel to leaders Napoli on Saturday.

    Kolo Muani will be welcomed into the fold at Juve by fellow Frenchmen Pierre Kalulu and Khephren Thuram, the latter the son of World Cup and European Championship winner Lilian who won two league titles at Juve.

  • PSG comeback floors Man City as Arsenal near Champions League last 16

    PSG comeback floors Man City as Arsenal near Champions League last 16

    Paris Saint-Germain pushed Manchester City to the brink of Champions League elimination after coming from two goals down to win 4-2 on Wednesday, while Arsenal all but secured their place in the last 16.

    Holders Real Madrid remain in contention for a top-eight spot after sweeping aside Red Bull Salzburg 5-1, but Bayern Munich’s hopes of automatic qualification took a hit with a 3-0 defeat by Feyenoord.

    Pep Guardiola’s City were left stunned as they blew a two-goal lead after Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland struck early in the second half in pouring rain at the Parc des Princes.

    Substitute Ousmane Dembele soon halved the deficit for PSG and Bradley Barcola equalised on the hour after Desire Doue’s effort came back off the crossbar.

    Joao Neves’ diving header put PSG on top before Goncalo Ramos added a late fourth as the French champions climbed from 26th in the table to 22nd and bumped City out of the qualifying spots for the knockout phase.

    “I don’t know how we did it, to be honest,” PSG coach Luis Enrique told Canal Plus.

    “We started the second half in the worst way possible by conceding two goals. It was tricky at that point, but at the same time this team believes in itself.”

    City, the European champions in 2023, are down in 25th having failed to win any of their last four games in the competition and must beat Club Brugge at home next week to salvage their campaign.

    “I accept the defeat because the best team won,” said Guardiola.

    “It’s in our hands, we have to win the last game,” he added. “Hopefully we can qualify. If it doesn’t happen, we don’t deserve it.”

    Arsenal are on the verge of the last 16 as goals from Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard sealed a 3-0 home win over Dinamo Zagreb — their fifth victory in seven games in Europe

    Paris Saint-Germain pushed Manchester City to the brink of Champions League elimination after coming from two goals down to win 4-2 on Wednesday, while Arsenal all but secured their place in the last 16.

    Holders Real Madrid remain in contention for a top-eight spot after sweeping aside Red Bull Salzburg 5-1, but Bayern Munich’s hopes of automatic qualification took a hit with a 3-0 defeat by Feyenoord.

    Pep Guardiola’s City were left stunned as they blew a two-goal lead after Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland struck early in the second half in pouring rain at the Parc des Princes.

    Substitute Ousmane Dembele soon halved the deficit for PSG and Bradley Barcola equalised on the hour after Desire Doue’s effort came back off the crossbar.

    Joao Neves’ diving header put PSG on top before Goncalo Ramos added a late fourth as the French champions climbed from 26th in the table to 22nd and bumped City out of the qualifying spots for the knockout phase.

    “I don’t know how we did it, to be honest,” PSG coach Luis Enrique told Canal Plus.

    “We started the second half in the worst way possible by conceding two goals. It was tricky at that point, but at the same time this team believes in itself.”

    City, the European champions in 2023, are down in 25th having failed to win any of their last four games in the competition and must beat Club Brugge at home next week to salvage their campaign.

    “I accept the defeat because the best team won,” said Guardiola.

    “It’s in our hands, we have to win the last game,” he added. “Hopefully we can qualify. If it doesn’t happen, we don’t deserve it.”

    Arsenal’s English midfielder #41 Declan Rice (L) celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the UEFA Champions League football match between Arsenal and Dinamo Zagreb at the Emirates Stadium in north London on January 22, 2025. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

    Arsenal are on the verge of the last 16 as goals from Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard sealed a 3-0 home win over Dinamo Zagreb — their fifth victory in seven games in Europe.

    Related News
    Guardiola concedes Man City ‘could not cope’ with PSG as European hopes flicker
    Arsenal beat Dinamo, on course for Champions League last 16
    Real Madrid thrash Salzburg to get back on Champions League track

    “It’s a massive step. We’re very close to achieving the goal we had before the group stage started,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta told TNT Sports.

    The Gunners, who go to Girona in their final game in the league phase, are third in the 36-team table and three points clear of ninth-placed Aston Villa with a far superior goal difference.

    – Madrid canter as Bayern falter –

    Rodrygo Goes and Vinicius Junior both struck twice, with Kylian Mbappe also on target as Madrid thumped Salzburg to move up to 16th, but just a point back from eighth-placed Bayer Leverkusen.

    “We’ve been through difficult moments we didn’t want to,” said Rodrygo.

    “But this victory in the Champions League, that we needed, will give us a lot of confidence to keep going now with the big challenges ahead of us.”

    The record 15-time European champions are just behind Bayern Munich after the German giants came unstuck in Rotterdam.

    Santiago Gimenez scored two goals, including a penalty, in the first half before Ayase Ueda’s late goal completed a superb display from Feyenoord, who could also still finish in the top eight.

    Inter Milan look guaranteed to reach the last 16 after their 1-0 win away to Sparta Prague courtesy of Lautaro Martinez’s volley.

    The Italian champions are fourth on 16 points, level with Arsenal, and one above city rivals AC Milan.

    Rafael Leao’s first-half strike was enough to earn Milan a 1-0 win that also eliminated Girona.

    Celtic advanced to the Champions League knockout stage for the first time in 12 years after inflicting a seventh successive defeat on Young Boys, with Loris Benito’s 86th-minute own goal handing the Hoops a 1-0 win in Glasgow.

    “It’s a little bit of history created, we haven’t been in the knockout stages for a long time. For the supporters it’s an amazing night,” said Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers.

    French club Brest saw their bid for an automatic spot in the last 16 dented by a 2-0 loss to Shakhtar Donetsk in Germany.

    Sporting Lisbon suffered a third straight defeat as previously pointless RB Leipzig won 2-1 with goals from Benjamin Sesko and Yussuf Poulsen.