Champions League Round of 16
Bookmakers saw Manchester United be the favorites to advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions League against PSG. Indeed, the French champions were missing two of their best players in Neymar and Cavani. PSG presented a very defensive squad in a 4-5-1 formation to counter-attack Man Utd’s offenses.
Manchester United had no answers and never came close to score a goal as the domination for the visitors was blatant. PSG deservedly won the game showing great solidity with a goal from Kimpembé and Mbappé to silence the home crowd. Solksjaer and his men were muted at old Trafford and need a miracle in Paris to advance… highly unlikely.
PSG players react to the big win
Defender, Dani Alves on the accomplishment:
“We were able to make the difference by relying on our collective strength and started the game well. We know that you have to up your game in the Champions League. When we manage to do that, we’re a formidable team.
Defender Kimpembe, who scored his first goal as a pro today shared his joy:
“I think that we are aware of our quality. The match was open, United slackened off a bit in the second half and we were able to take advantage of our chances. My goal? It’s like a dream, I’m going to enjoy it.”
Man United coach, Solskjaer, on what went wrong:
It looked like the game we thought it was going to be. In the first half, there wasn’t really much in it, and then they got the first goal. When they got that one, it was a poor goal to give away. Then they got the momentum. They started to control the game. They had the experience to play it out.
You can see that we’ve not played games at this level for a while and we’ll have to learn from this experience, because it was one of those experiences that can go either way. It’s not going to be a season defining one for us. It has to be one that we’re going to learn from.
Of course it was a reality check. You can see their strength they have when they put those players in [Neymar and Edinson Cavani], but then again, that’s the level we want to get to. We are looking to strengthen the squad and we have to learn with so many youngsters, to make the step up next season.”
