Champions League roundup
Solskjær speaks
David Hytner’s verdict has landed. Click below to enjoy ... and thanks so much for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
A word with a deservedly content Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who did a number on Thomas Tuchel this evening. “It’s a different feel, the start of the group stage, the last time was a knockout. But we win against a fantastic team. The euphoria was different, there are no fans here to celebrate. But I think we deserved to win. When you go away against a team like this, against players like Neymar and Mbappe, we know we have to defend well, that David will have to make a few saves. We know Axel’s qualities. His first game in ten months is testament to the character he has. Bruno showed character again. It could hardly go worse, two misses in a row! We probably need ten points, and we have three, so the next game against Leipzig will be very important. But we have Chelsea and Arsenal after, we have so many games, and I am very happy I have so many good players to pick from.”
The match-winner Marcus Rashford speaks. “It’s a nice feeling. We’re in a stronger position now, but it’s the first game, and we have to take the concentration and intensity into the next game and the Premier League. It’s a good performance, and we have a lot to build on. I always believe in team and the system the manager chooses. Today we did that. When we defend like that, man to man, we can do great things. The intensity was key for us. We’re very happy today.”
A perfect start in Group H for Manchester United. All smiles despite the Parisian heavens opening above. They celebrate their deserved victory, soaked to the skin. Last season’s runners-up trudge off after a limp, miserable display. United are second in the early Group H standings; Leipzig are first, having beaten Istanbul Basaksehir 2-0 thanks to a couple of quickfire first-half goals from Angelino.
FULL TIME: PSG 1-2 Manchester United
Marcus Rashford and Manchester United have done it again! They always have Paris.
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90 min +2: This will be PSG’s first group-stage home defeat since CSKA Moscow won here in December 2004. United are about to bring a 24-game unbeaten run to an end.
90 min +1: The first of three added minutes goes by with United running down the clock in PSG territory.
90 min: Kean is booked for a frustrated lunge on Fred.
89 min: From distance, Neymar sends a rising shot inches wide of the top right. Too little, too late.
88 min: United deserve this. They’ve been the better team. United send on James and Van de Beek to replace Martial and Fernandes.
GOAL! PSG 1-2 Manchester United (Rashford 87)
What a finish this is! Rashford, who put PSG to the sword in March 2019, has done it again! He’s fed by Pogba, just to the right of centre. He spins around Sarabia, breezing past him with ease, and creams a diagonal daisycutter into the bottom corner!
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86 min: From the corner, McTominay nearly gets a shot away. But he doesn’t connect while spinning amid a melee, and the hosts clear.
85 min: Pogba wanders in from the left and has a dig that’s deflected away for a corner on the right. Before the set piece can be taken, PSG make a couple more changes, Sarabia and Bakker coming on for Di Maria and Kurzawa.
84 min: Danilo is booked for a cynical tug on Fred’s shoulder.
83 min: Neymar advances towards the United box with extreme prejudice ... but his fierce shot is straight at De Gea, who parries with a strong arm. Up the other end, Martial drives down the left and nearly skips past Danilo, but a perfectly timed tackle puts a stop to his gallop.
82 min: Neymar sends Di Maria into acres down the left. Di Maria’s cross is no good, an easy clearance for Pogba. Rafinha tries to launch a second wave of attack, but simply hoicks the ball straight out for a goal kick.
80 min: Rashford slips Fernandes away down the right. Fernandes could shoot, upon entering the box, but selflessly cuts back for Rashford instead. Rashford’s shot is blocked by a combination of Navas and Diallo. PSG hack clear. United have had their chances tonight.
79 min: PSG replace Herrera and Florenzi with Rafinha and Dagba.
78 min: Rashford works his way down the right and drifts inside, teeing up Fernandes who drags a poor shot wide left. He had time and space to do better.
77 min: Martial and Pogba nearly open PSG up with a brisk one-two down the inside-left, but Martial can’t get onto the return and instead brings down Diallo. Cute move, though.
75 min: Florenzi curls in from the right. Kean has a free header, 12 yards out, but can’t get anything on target. The cross deserved better.
74 min: Mbappe tears after a long pass down the middle. For a second, it looks as though he’ll reach the ball in the box; if he does, he’ll be one on one with De Gea. But once again Tuanzebe holds firm. Mbappe goes over, demanding a penalty he’s not getting. Tuanzebe, thrown into the team during an injury crisis, has been excellent tonight against one of the biggest names in the world.
72 min: Tuanzebe is booked for ... well, not very much, leaning into the back of Mbappe as the pair engaged in aerial battle.
71 min: A lot of off-target passes being made right now, by both teams. Bayern Munich won’t be worried about relinquishing their title quite yet.
69 min: Rashford drops a shoulder to make himself a little space. Smart, patient play. He fizzes a low shot towards the bottom left. Navas fingertips the ball around the post for a corner that leads to nowt.
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68 min: Pogba is quickly involved, working down the left and teeing up Fernandes for a wild shot.
67 min: Alex Telles’s debut comes to an end. He’s replaced by Paul Pogba.
65 min: Kurzawa is released into the United box on the left. He’s got Mbappe and Neymar in the middle, waiting to slapshot home, but his low cross is blocked by Shaw. Excellent defending, though he should never have been given the chance to stop the cross. PSG are beginning to find routes through the United defence now.
64 min: Kean and Neymar cause a little bother on the edge of the United box. From the resulting corner, Di Maria sends a screamer into the Seine. PSG have been much better since the break.
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62 min: McTominay gives Herrara a good old boot in the coccyx. Ooyah, oof. Herrera’s in plenty of pain, but is good to go again when the sting subsides.
60 min: Good luck predicting who’ll score next. Now Kean makes good down the inside left, and is about to pull the trigger in the box when Wan-Bissaka pokes the ball away from him. Kean goes over, and several PSG players - plus Tuchel on the bench - claim a penalty, but the referee, correctly, shows no interest whatsoever.
59 min: The corner, from the right, ends up with Shaw on the left. He curls in for Martial, who blasts a header over from six yards. He should at least have made the keeper work.
58 min: Or maybe the best form of defence is attack. Rashford diddles Kimpembe with a clever turn, and he tears towards the PSG box. He’s about to pull the trigger when Danilo slides in to concede a corner.
57 min: PSG’s tails are suddenly up. Pretty much from the restart, Neymar drives down the middle and is only crowded out on the edge of the box. Then Di Maria dinks cleverly down the middle for Mbappe, who takes the ball down from over his shoulder and shoots low. Wan-Bissaka slides in to make an outstanding block. The resulting corner leads to nothing. All of a sudden, United need to hang on here.
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GOAL! PSG 1-1 Manchester United (Martial og 55)
Neymar whips the corner to the near post. Martial rises highest, and plants a header across De Gea and into the top right! What an absurd own goal. A gift for PSG.
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54 min: PSG hit the woodwork, but more through chance than design. Kurzawa chips from a tight angle on the left, the ball swerving in the air and dinking off the top of the bar. United get it half away. Mbappe drives down the left and wins a corner. From which ...
53 min: PSG are very slow and ponderous, United comfortable sitting back and holding their shape. “As United’s kit uses a naval pattern camouflage, it would work best against opponents who are all at sea,” begins Robin Hazlehurst, and you know where this is going. “No coincidence that they chose to wear it tonight?”
51 min: Martial forces a corner down the left. PSG make a meal of clearing, allowing Lindelof to take a whack from the edge of the box. His effort dribbles through to Navas.
49 min: Nothing comes of the corner, but PSG are quickly back at United and win a free kick out on the right. Neymar’s delivery is half cleared by Fernandes. Herrera balloons a first-time shot from distance miles over the bar.
48 min: United nearly pay for Rashford’s profligacy immediately, Mbappe’s twinkle toes taking him past McTominay and Wan-Bissaka on the left and into the box. He curls powerfully towards the top right, but De Gea tips round acrobatically for a corner.
47 min: Rashford is sent scampering into acres of space down the right by a simple Fernandes scoop. United are two on one! He could easily romp into the box himself, but tries to curl towards Martial on the left ... and gets it all wrong. A huge opportunity is spurned.
As lights on the Eiffel Tower glitter in the distance, PSG get the second half underway. They’ve made one half-time change, sending on Moise Kean in place of Idrissa Gueye. It’s still raining. Hoods up in the dugouts.
Results service. Earlier today in the Champions League ...
HALF TIME: PSG 0-1 Manchester United
United thoroughly deserve this lead, and it could easily have been more. They’ve been excellent. PSG by contrast have been a low-energy non-event.
45 min +1: Mbappe whistles one goalwards from distance, a last throw of the dice at the end of a dismal half for PSG. His effort twangs off Neymar’s back, which just about sums it up for the hosts.
45 min: There will be two added minutes. Thomas Tuchel will be desperate to get his troops back into the changing room for some trenchant half-time analysis.
43 min: A cross from the left into the United box. Mbappe spins and nearly gets a shot away, but fails to connect, allowing De Gea to batter clear.
42 min: Rashford nearly gets the better of Diallo down the inside-left channel, but the PSG defender gets a toe in, just in time.
41 min: PSG have got absolutely nothing going on.
39 min: Fernandes cuts in from the left and creams a shot towards the bottom right. Navas does extremely well to turn the ball round for a corner. From the set piece, McTominay fails to connect properly with his header, eight yards out. It twangs off Danilo and out for a second corner, which turns out to be a non-event. But United went very close, twice, to making it 0-2 there. They’ve been the bosses of their hosts so far.
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37 min: Di Maria’s dismal free kick is easily plucked from the sky by De Gea.
36 min: McTominay brings Neymar down with another cynical intervention, a slide tackle this time, and he’s in the book as well. “I think the kit has a bit of a dazzle ship feel,” writes Andy Tuohy. “Is the intention to confuse the opposition?” Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Parc?
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34 min: Mbappe zips down the left and nearly gets past Tuanzebe ... but the 22-year-old defender, making his first appearance of 2020, shuts the door with a strong shoulder. Neymar wants a penalty, though, and earns himself a yellow card by pushing the point a little too forcefully with the referee.
33 min: Neymar skitters into acres down the left. His low cross nearly finds Di Maria free in the box, but Shaw hacks clear just in time. More fine defending, though once again the offside flag went up. Again, Shaw wasn’t to know.
31 min: This is a bit better from PSG, as Kimpembe pearls a long pass down the middle to release Di Maria into acres. Di Maria knocks it a little to the left, and it’s a footrace to the ball between the winger and De Gea. The United keeper times his interception perfectly, flicking the ball away when any mistimed challenge could have ended in a penalty. The offside flag went up, but De Gea wasn’t to know that. Fine goalkeeping.
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29 min: There’s been absolutely no reaction to falling behind by last year’s finalists. This is a really poor show so far from the hosts. “To me, the United kit design looks like the result of a paper jam when someone tried to test print the Juventus shirt,” suggests Peter Oh. “Reduce, reuse, recycle!”
27 min: Di Maria nearly releases Neymar down the left with a glorious long pass, but De Gea reads the danger well, and races out of his box to boot clear. This has been a really impressive all-round performance by United so far. They look comfortable and happy, enjoying their football. Not so much PSG, who are currently 11 grimaces in flight.
25 min: PSG are visibly deflated already. Martial works hard down the right and wins a corner. Telles whips it in, and very nearly finds the head of McTominay, ten yards out. The hosts manage to bundle the ball away from danger.
24 min: Neymar and Nevas are fuming, but the retake was a no-brainer, Navas had both feet off of his line.
GOAL! PSG 0-1 Manchester United (Fernandes 23 pen)
This one was as good as the first one was bad! He hops, skips, and slots his second effort into the bottom right, giving Navas the eyes, sending him the wrong way, and winning the battle of wits!
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23 min: But Navas was miles off his line, and Fernandes will have a second chance!
22 min: After some discussion, Fernandes steps up to take the penalty. He performs his little skip and jump, but telegraphs it. He sends it softly towards the bottom right, and it’s an easy save for Navas. A poor spot kick.
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Penalty for United!
20 min: Shaw slips a ball down the inside-left channel for Martial, who is brought down as he attempts to spin round Diallo. A clear penalty.
19 min: Martial squirts through an almost imperceptible gap between three PSG players out on the left. It’s a lovely sashay, but having made himself a little space just inside the box, he skews an attempted curler towards the top right miles wide.
17 min: Fred clips Di Maria’s ankle. There’s not much contact, but Di Maria goes down theatrically and stays down, and play’s stopped so he can slowly get up without too much embarrassment.
15 min: Neymar blooters the resulting free kick straight into the United wall.
14 min: Neymar powers his way down the inside-left channel, then cutely dinks over McTominay, who tugs him back. It’s a free kick 30 yards out. It probably should be a yellow too, such was the cynicism inherent in McTominay’s yank. But the United midfielder gets away with it.
12 min: So having said that, PSG force the first two serious saves of the evening in double-quick time. Neymar drives down the left and switches to Di Maria on the right. Di Maria drops a shoulder to cut inside and curls powerfully from the right of the D. De Gea turns it round for a corner. One corner leads to another, and Mbappe swings in from the left. Kurzawa sticks out a leg, six yards out, and power-pokes straight at De Gea. How on earth did he fail to score? But fine goalkeeping.
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10 min: Neymar and Mbappe hover down the left but can’t get anything going. United have been the more impressive side so far.
8 min: Fernandes swings one into the PSG box from a deep position on the right. It nearly drops to Rashford, six yards out, but Diallo intercepts and guides the ball back to Navas. In fairly farcical fashion, it has to be said, the ball clanking between his legs, and very nearly teeing up the lurking Rashford. Fine ball by Fernandes there.
7 min: Neymar looks to be in the mood. He makes a couple of determined dribbles, drifting in from the left, giving Fred a few things to think about. The United man does enough to stop him on these occasions.
5 min: One corner leads to another corner, which leads to nothing.
4 min: PSG put their first flowing move together, started by a neat spin into space by Di Maria in the middle of the park. Neymar tries to slide Kurzawa away down the left, but the hosts have to settle for a corner.
3 min: A decent burst down the right by Rashford, though he’s eventually eased off the ball by Kimpembe. United will be happy enough with the breezy manner in which they’ve begun.
2 min: All a bit scrappy in the early exchanges as both teams find their feet. There’s not much in it, but United are probably enjoying a little bit more possession, for what that’s worth right now.
United get the ball rolling. The rain is fairly heavy right now. Positively Mancunian.
Here come the teams! They’ve funked up the Champions League Anthem (version). Is nothing sacred? No, we know that already, tell it to Handel. But to keep traditionalists happy, they then play Zadok the Priest the breakbeat-free original. We’ll be off in a minute.
A relaxed looking Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stands in the Parisian drizzle and talks to BT Sport. “Of course it’s great to be back in the Champions League, especially against one of the best teams in Europe. They’ve got some of the best players in the world. This is what our players dream about, it’s what they’ve been working for, and now we’re here. It’s a good chance to get some points in the first game. Every game is a chance to show what you are about, and this is a test of character. We have put a team together that we feel is the best we can start with. We’ve had a few injuries. We need to do everything right, we can’t have a moment when we blink, we must have concentration from the first to last minute. They are quick in transition, but that is also one of our strengths.”
Manchester United will be wearing that new distressed-zebra third kit for the first time tonight. Cobble together your own press release from the following phrases: “fresh update to tradition”, “re-drawn, hacked and re-imagined”, “iconic”, “an original story”, “relationship with stripes”, “vibrant new print”, “surprising and unexpected result”, “club DNA”, “disruptive jersey graphics”, “visual revolution”, “push the boundaries of shirt design”, “push our luck”, “not a patch on the stuff Admiral did back in the 70s”. PSG will play in their usual blue, white and red.
As for the hosts ... PSG make five changes from the XI sent out to beat Nimes 4-0 last weekend. The most notable incomers: Neymar and the United old boys Ander Herrera and Angel di Maria. Stepping down to the bench: Everton loanee Moise Kean.
Alex Telles makes his Manchester United debut. The 27-year-old Brazilian, a £15m deadline-day signing from Porto, starts at left wing-back, with Luke Shaw operating as part of a back three. Axel Tuanzebe makes his first appearance since a League Cup win over Colchester United last December. Bruno Fernandes captains United for the first time, while Paul Pogba remains benched.
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The teams
PSG: Navas, Florenzi, Diallo, Kimpembe, Kurzawa, Herrera, Danilo Pereira, Gueye, Di Maria, Mbappe, Neymar.
Subs: Rafinha, Marquinhos, Sergio Rico, Kean, Sarabia, Draxler, Bakker, Letellier, Dagba, Pembele, Fadiga, Ruiz-Atil.
Manchester United: de Gea, Wan Bissaka, Tuanzebe, Lindelof, Shaw, Telles, Fred, McTominay, Fernandes, Rashford, Martial.
Subs: Pogba, Mata, James, Fosu-Mensah, Ighalo, Henderson, Pellistri, Matic, Williams, van de Beek.
Referee: Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz (Spain).
Preamble
“We don’t have good memories.” Thomas Tuchel, there, trying his damnedest not to reminisce about the time his PSG side welcomed Manchester United to the Parc des Princes in March 2019. You’ll recall it, though, as United became the first side ever in the Champions League era to recover from a two-goal home first-leg deficit: two-goal Romelu Lukaku, Presnel Kimpembe’s arm, Marcus Rashford’s steely nerve, all that.
That historic comeback earned Ole Gunnar Solskjaer his permanent gig at Old Trafford, and remains the high-water mark of his reign so far. United could do with a similar morale boost tonight, building on an impressive 4-1 win at Newcastle last weekend that went at least a little way to forgetting about that defeat by Spurs. A fast start to Group H would further steady the ship as Solskjaer looks to buy a little more time and space in which to work.
Some hope for United: PSG started their Ligue 1 campaign with two defeats for the first time since 1984. The second of those losses came at home against Marseille, a game they finished with just eight players. And they’ve always got a European meltdown in them. On the other hand, since that Marseille defeat, they’ve won their five subsequent games to the aggregate tune of 16-1, Kylian Mbappé has four goals in his last four appearances, and we haven’t even mentioned Neymar.
So this is one of those lovely matches where anything looks possible. It should be open. It should be entertaining. It could be dramatic. It’s on!
Kick off: 9pm in Paris, 8pm BST.
