Paris Saint-German Wins at Old Trafford in UCL Round of 16

Published on 13-Feb-2019 by srijan213

Soccer    Soccer Daily Update

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Paris Saint-German Wins at Old Trafford in UCL Round of 16

No Neymar. No Cavani. No problem.

It didn't hurt Paris Saint-Germain's cause that Manchester United's strike force was dropping like flies in the first half, either.

Both Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial went down with injuries, and their seconds weren't up to the task.

The result was a 0-2 Parisiens road victory in this Champions League first-leg Round of 16 clash.

 

An inspired former Red Devil, Angel di Maria led the way as they inflicted a first defeat on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's interim reign, leaving United with much to do at the Parc des Princes in three weeks' time.

In a fiery first half, both teams studied each other, but there weren't many clear chances to get on the board. The best chance was for the visitors, as Julian Draxler fed Kylian Mbappé, who got inside the box, face-to-face with David de Gea, but the French international's effort went wide:

 

Soon thereafter is when the situation got a little tougher for the Red Devils, as Mata went down in the 45th minuite and Lingard followed him to the turf four minutes into stoppage time.

Solskjaer introduced Alexis Sánchez, and Juan Mata for the second half, but instead of helping ...

 

Something like that.

For example, Presnel Kimpembe must've been in a witness protection program to be so open in the 53rd minute. Dude was unmarked and well-positioned to fire him from di Maria's corner:

 

Instead of rising to the challenge the hosts looked like ADD's whose meds kicked in, and Solskjaer was helpless to do much else other than activate himself on the roster.

 

The Parisiens' second came in the 60th, while the Devils were still in a daze from the first.

Di Maria was again the architect of the play, as the Argentine winger received a pass on the left wing and low crossed it to Mbappé. Dude then obliged with a low zinger on de Gea's corner:

 

 

United tried to snap out of it after that, but the visitors were ace when it came to protecting a two-goal lead. They were just the better team overall by then, anyway.

Unfortunately for United, there was still time to lose an important player. In the 88th, Paul Pogba was shown a second yellow for a foul on Daniel Alves de Silva.

 

Harsh.

Gotta wonder if the referee was wearing stripes in New Orleans a few weeks ago.