Yesterday morning, one of the most anticipated games of the Champions League was played by two European giants.
Ex-United player Angel Di Maria was copping a lot from the home supporters due to his underwhelming spell at United in 2014-15.
After being transferred to Manchester from Real Madrid for at the time, he was one of the most expensive transfers in English football history at a whopping $AUD 108 million.
Unfortunately, Di Maria did not live up to the price tag, and that led to some unsavoury behaviour from the United crowd yesterday, who hurled glass bottles at him. As a result, United have been charged by UEFA.
As for the game, the Red Devils were heavily favoured. Not only were PSG without the most expensive player in football, Neymar, but also their key striker, Edinson Cavani. This led to many changes in the Paris starting 11, with Kylian Mbappe playing as a central striker and Dani Alves a wide attacker.
Manchester came in the game with their newly appointed manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, with a record of ten wins and one draw.
As a result, fans had high expectations, but it’s fair to say the bar was set a bit too high.
In the whole 90 minutes, United struggled to create opportunities, only managing to get one shot off on target. This was from a poor angle, and Gianluigi Buffon had it covered. Solskjær and his squad just couldn’t find a way past Presnel Kimpembe and Thiago Silva.
PSG also found it difficult to make opportunities for shots but nowhere near as much as United. Their first goal came from centre-back Kimpembe in the 53rd minute off a corner. After the game had finished, Solskjær made a comment about how his team should not be letting in any goals off a set piece like that, and it’s clear to see he wasn’t happy.
PSG’s second goal came only seven minutes later after Di Maria’s quality cross landed on Mbappe’s right foot. The 20-year-old continued to make his mark on European football, using his pace to get in the perfect position to unleash a first-time pinpoint finish.
(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
The physical nature of the match saw ten yellow cards dished out, four given to PSG and six to Manchester. Unfortunately for the Red Devils,star player Paul Pogba was given his marching order after being handed two yellow cards as a result of risky challenges.
Pogba will now miss the second leg in Paris on March 7 to try to seal their place in the quarter-final.
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