Match report
Full-time: Arsenal 2-2 PSG
It’s all over! PSG are delighted, Arsenal are deflated. The French champions go top of Group A based on their superior head-to-head record and all they need to do to win it is beat Ludogorets at home in their final match. Arsenal are looking at another tough last-16 draw unless Ludogorets can do them a favour. Still, look on the bright side, at least they won’t be playing Bayern Munich. Thanks for reading and emailing. Bye.
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90 min+1: Verratti slips a smart pass through to Jese. Koscielny blocks his fierce drive. PSG have a corner.
90 min: There will be three added minutes.
89 min: Jese replaces the outstanding Lucas Moura.
88 min: Xhaka ruins a promising Arsenal break with a pathetic pass that flies straight out of play. Wenger isn’t happy.
86 min: Meunier has gone down with an injury of some sort. Not for long, though. He’s up again to take the throw.
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82 min: Edinson Cavani should win it again for PSG, but, y’now. With Arsenal desperately chasing a third goal, there are wide open spaces for PSG to exploit on the break. Forward they go again, threatening to overwhelm Arsenal. Lucas curls a devilish ball into the middle and Cavani flings himself at it, only to plant his header past the right post. Dearie me. He could have had double figures against Arsenal this season.
81 min: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replaces Carl Jenkinson. Arsenal are going for broke.
80 min: Theo Walcott is on for Arsenal. Francis Coquelin is off. PSG are menacing again, though, Cavani breaking down the left and scuffing at Ospina from a tight angle.
79 min: Arsenal do their usual, press forward and leave no one back to defend the PSG counterattack. Lucas plays Cavani through and he can’t be offside seeing as he’s started his run from inside his own half. Luckily for Arsenal, it’s Cavani and he’s always got the potential to do something absolutely absurd. Through on goal, he reckons that he might as well try to go for an elegant chip over Ospina from 20 yards, because he is Leo Messi. He’s not Leo Messi. He gets barely any purchase on his effort and it’s probably going wide. Ospina saves it, just to make the buffoon feel better.
78 min: Granit Xhaka replaces the luckless Alex Iwobi.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-2 PSG (Lucas, 77 min)
From the right, Hatem Ben Arfa lifts a high corner towards the far post. Arsenal decide to leave Lucas Moura unmarked, because why not, what’s he going to do anyway? Peeling away from the dozing Jenkinson, Lucas heads it towards the right post. Alex Iwobi is standing by it but the ball flicks off his head and past Ospina, who might have had it covered. This is a sickener for Arsenal. As it stands, PSG are going top.
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76 min: Gibbs heads behind for a corner on the right. And...
75 min: The impressive Meunier guides a teasing low cross into the area, looking for Cavani, but Ospina plunges down to claim the ball in front of the Uruguayan.
72 min: Ben Arfa’s first contribution is an extravagant piece of skill to get away from two players in the middle of Arsenal’s half. His attempted through ball is cut out, but Arsenal contrive to lose the ball near their own area. Lucas finds Meunier, who whips a fine cross into the middle. With Matuidi lurking, Jenkinson does extremely well to steer the ball away with his thigh.
71 min: Motta decides that he’s Cristiano Ronaldo and shoots from 40 yards. He’s not Cristiano Ronaldo.
69 min: Arsenal appear to have realised that they’ll have a better chance of holding on to their lead if they stop panicking.
67 min: Kyrchowiack, who’s had a nightmarish game, is hauled off and replaced by Hatem Ben Arfa as PSG look for an equaliser that would swing the group in their favour.
65 min: PSG have upped the intensity since going behind. Verratti skedaddles through the middle but can’t produce a telling final ball. Then Lucas falls on the edge of the area. No free-kick. Arsenal need to steady themselves. They’re looking shaky again. Meanwhile, Hull City legend Hatem Ben Arfa is about to come on for PSG.
63 min: Lucas slips a canny pass through to Cavani, who’s peeled away from Koscielny. Or has he? The Arsenal centre-back clambers all over Cavani, nipping away at him, making his presence felt at the very least. PSG claim he’s tugging Cavani back. They might have a point. Cavani tumbles, Ospina smothers. Cavani screams for a penalty; so does Unai Emery; the away end is up in arms. Play continues.
62 min: Looking for an instant riposte, Cavani decides to have a shot from 25 yards out. He almost hits the corner flag.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 PSG (Verratti own goal, 60 min)
This is pure farce from PSG’s perspective and wonderful from Arsenal’s! Jenkinson, an increasing influence on the right, slides a low cross into the middle. It ricochets around the area and falls to Ramsey. His shot is poor but Marquinhos’s attempted clearance clatters against the unwitting Verratti’s shins and rebounds past the helpless Areola. Outplayed in the first half, Arsenal lead and are on their way to winning the group.
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59 min: Arsenal win a couple of corners. Ozil trots across to the right to take a second. It’s a deep one, but it’s not a particularly good one.
57 min: This is really opening up now and when an Arsenal move breaks down, Matuidi leads a PSG counterattack down the left. He finds Cavani, who beats one, two, three players. But not a fourth. His 25-yard drive is smothered and it’s Arsenal’s turn to attack. They steam down the right and the ball’s hoicked into the area by Jenkinson. It’s headed away from Sanchez but comes to Giroud, who brings the ball down and shoots. It’s heading towards the far corner but it hits a PSG defender.
55 min: PSG attempt to turn the screw after that Lucas effort, but Arsenal deal with their efforts easily enough. Then they break. Ozil ambles down the right and Verratti pulls him back, picking up a booking that will rule him out of the next game.
54 min: It almost wasn’t worth it. The free-kick’s 25 yards from goal. Cavani runs over it and leaves it to Lucas, who wallops it goalwards, the ball wobbling and dipping viciously through the air, leaving Ospina rooted to the spot and mightily relieved to see it bounce off the bar and over. What an effort!
52 min: Koscielny does a Krychowiack and overruns the ball in a dangerous area, inviting Lucas to press and nip in. The Brazilian hurtles towards the Arsenal area and Koscielny desperately brings him down. The referee waits to see if the ball’s going to run to Cavani. When it doesn’t, he awards a free-kick and books Koscielny, who’ll reason it was worth it if the free-kick comes to nothing.
49 min: Ospina decides to liven things up with a sharp pass to Koscielny, who manages to get the ball under control. While I and other neutrals appreciated the sentiment from Ospina, it’s unlikely his team-mates did.
48 min: It’s been a slow start to the second half, with neither side able to string that many passes together yet.
46 min: PSG get the second half underway. As it stands, the head-to-head record won’t matter if this game finishes 1-1, it will be all about goal difference. Arsenal’s is superior by three goals. The potential problem for Arsenal is that PSG play Ludogorets.
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“Whether or not the defender made contact (and I say this as a Gooner) Sanchez did that thing where he stretched his leg out as if he had actually been caught,” says Allan Castle. “The contact was totally irrelevant to what Sanchez elected to do. That’s a thing these days, isn’t it?”
On second viewing, maybe it wasn’t a “clear penalty”. My first reaction on watching a replay was that it was a preposterous dive from Sanchez, but there may well have been a touch from Krychowiack. On BT Sport, Ian Wright reckons there was enough contact. So does Michael Owen. I’m inclined to agree.
There’s a suggestion that PSG were actually furious with Alexis Sanchez for diving. We’ll have another look in a minute. It was certainly a moronic decision from Krychowiack to go to ground.
Half-time: Arsenal 1-1 PSG
Somehow, Arsenal are level. They’ve been awful, PSG have been brilliant. The French side deservedly led through Edinson Cavani, only to get a bit too cocky right at the end of the half, allowing Arsenal to equalise through Olivier Giroud. The ball’s back in Arsenal’s court now.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 PSG (Giroud pen, 45min+1)
With the final kick off the half and Arsenal’s first shot on target, Giroud strokes the ball into the bottom right corner with his left foot. Areola dives the wrong way and Arsenal are level!
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45 min+1: There’s a delay before the penalty can be taken. A brawl’s broken out, Arsenal furious with Cavani for delaying the kick. The camera appears to show Cavani hitting out at Ramsey, but no action is taken. Now then. Can Giroud score?
PENALTY TO ARSENAL!
45 min: Just as we all start to coo over PSG’s confidence on the ball, Krychowiack faffs around near his own area and loses it to Giroud. Arsenal spring into life at last and Ozil works the ball to Sanchez on the right of the area. Looking to make amends, Krychowiack steams in with a preposterous challenge just as Sanchez cuts inside. He brings the Chilean down and that’s a clear penalty. Shades of Man City v Barcelona.
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42 min: Sanchez feeds Jenkinson on the right, but the right-back shows his rustiness with another dismal cross. Arsenal’s final ball has been wretched. Mind you, PSG have been pushed back in the last 10 minutes. The visitors haven’t threatened for a while.
41 min: Arsenal finally discover some urgency, pouring forward with more endeavour and belief, but another move ends in a PSG goal-kick, the final touch coming off Gibbs after Meunier blocked his cross.
40 min: Arsenal have started to do a lot of hopeful falling over near the PSG box, but the referee still isn’t buying it. Still, this is an improvement. Again Giroud lets a pass run through to Ramsey, who’s denied by an intervention from Silva again. Arsenal win a corner. Can they do anything with it? One guess.
38 min: The Emirates is silent. Arsenal haven’t had a shot yet.
35 min: Sanchez wallops a cross straight out of play. That was execrable.
34 min: Coquelin picks up a booking for a robust, overly high challenge on Motta, who certainly made sure he let the referee know that one hurt. Coquelin will be suspended against Basel.
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32 min: Verratti is a brilliant player. That is all.
31 min: Meunier whacks the ball against Gibbs and wins a PSG corner on the right. Lucas’s corner is disappointing. Sanchez tries to counter, but Marquinhos cynically brings him down. He’s booked.
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28 min: Arsenal exert more pressure and Ramsey bursts into the area after a clever dummy from Giroud. Ramsey can’t get away from Thiago Silva, though, and goes down looking for a penalty. The referee isn’t interested. Goal-kick.
27 min: Arsenal mount a rare attack, Sanchez chipping a ball towards Jenkinson. Areola punches it away from the right-back.
26 min: “With Walcott out there’s a place for a blind-alley-running, bad-decision-making, possession-losing wide player,” Charles Antaki says. “Unfortunately at the moment Alex Iwobi’s audition is looking good for the role.” Iwobi has been noticeably poor so far, earlier wasting an opportunity to shoot after earning a yard of space on the edge of the PSG area.
24 min: PSG work the ball beautifully through midfield, Motta spraying a pass out to Maxwell on the left. Sanchez tracks back and makes a good tackle. The ball comes off Maxwell last, but the referee awards a goal-kick at first, only to correct himself and award a goal-kick.
23 min: Koscielny drives through the middle and finds Giroud, who’s thinking about his beard instead of staying onside.
22 min: Arsenal are struggling badly on and off the ball. This is a serious chasing at the moment.
20 min: Arsenal could do with waking up. They’ve had a nice snooze, but it’s time to wake up.
GOAL! Arsenal 0-1 PSG (Cavani, 18 min)
Lulling Arsenal to sleep with their hypnotic passing, PSG bide their time. Then they bounce. Out of nowhere, suddenly they increase the tempo. There’s no pressure on Thiago Motta, who slides a pass down the inside left channel for Blaise Matuidi, who slips far too easily away from Mustafi. He’s away on the left and instead of shooting, he fires it across goal for Cavani, who slides in and bundles the ball in the far post to give PSG a deserved lead.
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15 min: Meunier clips a low cross into the area from the right. Cavani’s interested, but Koscielny slides in to concede a corner. Lucas whips the corner towards the near post, where Cavani is all unmarked. Cavani flicks it on and Silva tries to bundle it in, forcing Gibbs to hack the ball off the line. That was dreadful marking from Arsenal, who are hugely fortunate not to be behind.
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13 min: This is better from Arsenal, who decide to press high, winning the ball twice near PSG’s area. Nothing comes from it, but at least they know they can rattle PSG’s midfielders now.
11 min: PSG are passing the ball so sweetly. Whether they have a cutting edge remains to be seen, though. Remember, it’s arguably more important for them to win this game.
10 min: Arsenal haven’t got going here. They’re not doing much at all.
7 min: PSG are snapping into Arsenal in the middle. Arsenal can’t afford to dawdle on the ball because that’s an invitation for a PSG player to make an interception. It happens again here and PSG look to counter, only for Verratti to fail to find Cavani’s run through the middle.
6 min: Arsenal lose the ball again in midfield. Verratti exchanges passes swiftly with Lucas and attempts to prod a pass through to Cavani. Koscielny reads the situation, though, and mops up. PSG are looking confident and threatening, though. Meunier scampers down the right and flashes a cross into the middle. Cavani darts to the near post but he can’t quite get his head to it.
4 min: Coquelin draws a howl of anguish from the home fans, carelessly knocking a stray pass straight to Cavani, who was lurking around the Arsenal defence. Fortunately for Coquelin, his brain freeze doesn’t lead to anything. Verratti’s pass is poor and Arsenal get on with it.
2 min: PSG settle themselves down with a long spell of possession, but they’re in their half and they’re not going anywhere in particular. Eventually Giroud nips in to win the ball back.
And we’re off! Arsenal, in their red and white shirts, get the game underway. They’re kicking from left to right in the first half. PSG are in their navy strips.
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Here come the teams! It’s a huge night for Arsenal, even though it would be just their luck to win this group and end up with a tie against, say, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, both of whom may well end up finishing second in their groups. Bayern just lost 3-2 to FC Rostov. But as Wenger pointed out before the game, finishing first means you get the second leg at home. Over to you, Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger speaks! “I have plenty of players who are available and fresh. I try to rotate a little bit and keep the balance in the team. That’s why I brought Giroud back today, Walcott had a slight problem in his toe. We are on a strong run and we play at home. We have a desire to win. I believe we want to continue our run and win against a big team.”
For Arsenal, Olivier Giroud returns to the starting line-up after his goal against United, Alex Iwobi replaces Mohamed Elneny, David Ospina deputises for Petr Cech in goal and Kieran Gibbs starts instead of Nacho Monreal at left-back. Santi Cazorla and Hector Bellerin are notable injury absentees.
Arsenal look stronger in attack than PSG. The French champions lost Angel Di Maria and Javier Pastore to injury on the weekend, so they look a little light creatively. Serge Aurier is also unavailable. The right-back was denied a visa to the UK because of a conviction for assaulting a police officer.
The teams!
Arsenal: Ospina; Jenkinson, Mustafi, Koscielny, Gibbs; Coquelin, Ramsey; Sanchez, Ozil, Iwobi; Giroud. Subs: Cech, Monreal, Gabriel, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Xhaka, Walcott, Elneny.
PSG: Areola; Meunier, Silva, Marquinhos, Maxwell; Verratti, Krychowiack, Motta; Lucas, Cavani, Matuidi. Subs: Trapp, Kimpembe, Ben Arfa, Jese, Ikone, Nkunku, Augustin.
Referee: Felix Brych (Germany).
Preamble
Hello. Unbeaten since losing to Liverpool on the opening day of the season, things are looking up for Arsenal. They’re feeling good about themselves after snatching a late point at Manchester United on Saturday, they’re in the title race, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are on fire and so far they’ve managed to avoid a major injury crisis. This is it. This is their year.
On the other hand, Arsene Wenger’s not fooled so easily. He knows that his team can produce more. Two of their biggest flaws flared up in successive 1-1 draws with Tottenham and United have exposed two of their biggest flaws. Against Tottenham, they weren’t ruthless enough to build on a 1-0 half-time lead, while they rather froze at United. Olivier Giroud’s equaliser masked a poor performance and Wenger has admitted that Arsenal still need to prove themselves against the toughest opponents.
They have another opportunity to show that they are the real deal against Paris Saint-Germain this evening. Victory would guarantee them top spot in Group A, which would potentially lead to an easier draw in the last 16. Winning a Champions League group isn’t a very Arsenal thing to do, but it’s about time they delivered. Other than their humiliation of Antonio Conte’s work-in-progress Chelsea in September, Arsenal haven’t quite produced their best football in the biggest games. The pressure is on again here. PSG might be in a period of transition under Unai Emery, but while the French champions are surprisingly three points off the pace in Ligue 1, they have more than enough individual talent to claim the victory that would take them above Arsenal.
They won’t be overawed. PSG are level on points with Arsenal and know that they should have hammered them at the Parc-des-Princes back in September, only for Edinson Cavani to spurn several glorious opportunities and David Ospina to make several fine saves before Sanchez’s unlikely equaliser. You fancy that PSG will want to put that right tonight, so this is a serious test both of Arsenal’s ability and that mental strength Wenger’s always banging on about.
Kick-off: 7.45pm GMT.
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