The absence of two of their top attacking stars did not prevent Paris Saint-Germain from getting a great result against Manchester United at Old Trafford for the first leg of the Round of 16 of the Champions League. The Parisians have two other greats in attack, including Frenchman Kyllian Mbappé and Argentinian Angel Di Maria, who were instrumental in helping their team win an important 2-0 away win in England.
With the absences of injured Neymar and Edinson Cavani, PSG were expected to have a fairly defensive stance against a United side who arrived at the peak of their season, undefeated under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with eleven wins and just one draw. But none of that happened in Manchester; instead, Thomas Tuchel's team was intelligent, with an impenetrable defence, a good half of the pitch (Dani Alves played as midfielder and Marco Verratti broke it until he had to leave the pitch injured) and an attack that showed its speed every time he set out.
That was the facet that ended up taking advantage of the PSG in the complement, with a United already somewhat tired after exhausting most of its variants in the first 45 minutes totally ineffective. First Di Maria put a perfect center in a corner shot for Kimpembe, who pushed it into the second post, and then the Argentine returned to appear to leave the goal served to Mbappé, who only had to push it against Spain's De Gea. The Noodle would also be the protagonist for extrafutbolísticas issues, insulting the fans of the English team after the first goal.
And it could have been more goals for PSG in the next few minutes, but the Spanish goalkeeper showed why he is considered one of the best in his position in the world. On the other hand, despite entries from Chile's Alexis Sanchez and Belgium's Romelu Lukaku, United found nowhere. As if that wasn't enough, Paul Pogba saw the red in the final moments and will miss the revenge.
As it was, PSG scored an important result in enemy territory and set foot in the next round. The team that needs to regroup is Solskjaer's team, who will have several weeks to think about how to turn the series around in France.
