Paris (AFP)
Paris Saint-Germain, the title holder, began the post-Kylian Mbappe era, who left for Real Madrid, with a big late win over host Le Havre 4-1, in the first round of the French Football League.
The final result does not reflect the course of the match, as the team of Spanish coach Luis Enrique waited until the last five minutes to secure the three points, scoring three goals through substitutes Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola and Randal Kolo Muani.
Enrique started the match by including the young Ibrahim Mbaye (16 years old) in the front line, alongside the Portuguese Goncalo Ramos and the Spaniard Marco Asensio, while the new Ecuadorian arrival Willian Pacho started in defense.
In contrast, Dembele and Barcola sat on the bench, in a lineup led by Moroccan Achraf Hakimi, who won the Olympic bronze with his country, and with the participation of another young man, Yoram Zag (18 years old), in defense.
Paris Saint-Germain started their match against the team that had not beaten the capital club since October 30, 1999 (3-1 in the league), in the best way, as they opened the scoring after less than three minutes, following a counterattack that started from their own area. The ball reached Hakimi, who passed it to Ramos on the edge of the penalty area, who passed it to South Korean Kang-In Lee, who shot it with his left foot into the net (3).
Saint-Germain suffered a blow with the injury of Ramos, who was forced to leave his place in the 20th minute for Kolo Muani, who was close to scoring the second goal for the guests, but the crossbar intervened to block his header, after a cross from captain Hakimi “23”.
After a goal for Le Havre was disallowed for offside and two chances for Asensio and Mbaye that were saved by goalkeeper Arthur Dismas, the first half ended with the capital club leading with an early goal scored by Lee.
But Le Havre started the match from scratch, at the beginning of the second half, when Christopher Obiri took a free kick, and passed the ball to Gauthier Lloris, who followed it with his left foot into the net of Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, taking advantage of the poor defensive coverage of Enrique’s team “47”.
Saint-Germain pressed in the second half to regain their lead, and threatened their host’s goal on more than one occasion, most notably when Lely fired a powerful shot, but luck was against him, as it bounced off the crossbar “61”.
After several unsuccessful chances, relief came through substitute Dembele, who scored the opening goal in the 85th minute with a header, after a pass from the other substitute, the Portuguese Joao Neves, who was also behind the goal of the other substitute Barcola (86), before Kolo Muani concluded the goals with a penalty kick that he took himself (90).
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