UEFA Champions League day 1: PSG 1-1 Arsenal
PSG dropped two points at home against the Gunners who are very lucky to bring a point from Paris. PSG scored after 44 seconds (the fastest goal conceded by Arsenal in UCL) but many at least six clear chances to score a second goal. They should have at least score 3 or 4. Arsenal did not show up in the first half and were very lucky to be down only 1-0 at the break.
During the second half, Arsenal put more pressure and created some chances. Because of Paris deficiency, highlighted by Edison Cavani who missed three one-on-one chances against Arsenal keeper Ospina, Arsenal leveled thanks to Alexis Sanchez at the 78th. Still, Paris Saint-Germain would have a couple chances to win the game. The emptiness left by Ibrahimovic is blatant and Cavani is looking for his confidence back. As for Arsenal, the team is far from being solid and much improvement needs to be done.
Arsenal Coach Wenger is, nonetheless, satisfied with the draw:
“I feel overall we played against a good Paris Saint-Germain team, who started much stronger than us. They played at a high pace, but even in the first half I think we were in trouble mainly when we lost the ball on the counter-attack because they pressed well. Even in the first half you could see that if we managed to keep the ball a bit better we would be dangerous – we created chances. In the first half, our midfield played a bit too far from Alexis. In the second half we played higher, and after the kick-off in the second half we had a good chance to come back, which we did. In the end we have experience in the Champions League and we got a good point.
thought that we didn’t panic, and overall we were resilient enough, and the resilience comes through experience. I told the players at half-time that if we keep playing we will come back, because we could see if we had better possession we could score goals. Overall, I think it was a good result to come here and not lose and pick up a point.”
PSG coach Emery is frustrated with the missed chances:
“It’s not the best result, but I’m happy because the team played the game I wanted. We created seven clear opportunities to score. About Cavani? I trust him, he creates opportunities. We will win with him. We were compact and we did a good pressing. As long as we play like that, it will be good for the team.”
