Paris (AFP)
French Paris Saint-Germain began the post-Argentine Lionel Messi, Brazilian Neymar and Italian Marco Verratti era with “a pretty perfect evening,” by defeating its German guest, Borussia Dortmund, 2-0 on Tuesday evening, in the most prominent matches of the first round of the European Champions League.
In a seventh group classified as fiery, in the presence of Italian Milan, the seven-time champion of the competition, and Newcastle, renewed with Saudi funding, the victory on Tuesday in the “Parc des Princes” was a very important step for the French capital club and its new Spanish coach, Luis Enrique, who was completely satisfied with what he saw from his players. After their absolute dominance of the match and their victory with goals from Kylian Mbappe and Moroccan Achraf Hakimi, who scored against his former team.
Enrique said after the match, “What I liked was almost everything: the rush in the match from the beginning, the speed and control of the match for about 75 minutes. It is a match that reinforces our ideas. We are all happy,” he added, adding: “The focus was to play our match, to possess the ball. The pressure was very high. Dortmund did not have the ability to attack.”
The Champions League competition has always been the real test for Saint-Germain in light of the modest competition in the local league, and it showed on Tuesday that it is capable of dealing with the loss of stars like Messi, Neymar and Verratti who left this summer to defend the colors of the American Inter Miami and the Saudi and Qatari Al Hilal, respectively, or the Spanish Sergio. Ramos, who returned to his starting team, Sevilla.
The capital club is still panting for its first title in the competition, relying this time on the double of Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé, who faced a team that excelled in its ranks in the 2016-2017 season, which opened the door for him to move to Barcelona, Spain, and then this summer to Saint-Germain.
Saint-Germain entered its confrontation with Dortmund in shaky spirits, as a result of its defeat on Friday at home to Nice 2-3 in the fifth stage of the local league, which it originally started in a frustrating manner after drawing its first two matches against Lorient 0-0 and Toulouse 1-1, before then winning against Lens 3-1 and Lyon. 4-1.
It is certain that a loss or even a draw on Tuesday would have increased the pressure on Enrique, but his men gave a remarkable performance at the beginning of their journey, but “we are still in the first round,” according to what the Spanish coach said, who is awaiting another difficult confrontation on Sunday in the local league when Saint-Germain takes on the team. As a guest of its rival Marseille.
The former Barcelona and Spain national team coach said, “The win was vital, but this does not give us any promises for the future. The most important thing is to win the largest number of matches. We will have the opportunity to go to Newcastle and impose our style” on the fourth of next month.
Saint-Germain topped the Group G standings, two points behind Newcastle and its host Milan, who tied 0-0 in the English team’s first test in the main continental competition in 20 years.
Enrique continued: “We had to score some of the chances we had.” We could have achieved a greater result. For me, the thing to improve is the last 15 minutes. “We have to control the game better, but I repeat, it is a pretty perfect evening for me.”
Enrique praised striker Mbappe, whose fate with the Parisian club remains up in the air, since he did not renew his contract, which means his departure next summer for free, saying: “For me, Kylian is the best player in the world without the slightest doubt. What struck me most was his human quality. “It’s nice to see him in the dressing room. He’s always smiling. He’s a very important leader for the team.”
Saint-Germain began the match by starting Randall Kolo-Mwani in the front line for the first time in the “Parc des Princes” since his arrival from Eintracht Frankfurt, and Enrique was satisfied with what he saw from the newcomer, saying: “I did not see him facing difficulty at any time. He just arrived.” ..We are happy with him.”
#SaintGermain #begins #postMessi #Neymar #era #perfect #evening