Each game day of the UEFA Champions League, you can single out a central match and one that can also attract the attention of fans with some interesting background. Or you can even choose a few of them – that’s how lucky you are. And if during the whole of last season we watched with admiration the path of the Catalan Girona to the main club tournament of the Old World through La Liga, then when Michel’s team did get there, was it possible to pass by this historic event?

“Red and white” made their debut at the highest level with a match against an opponent that even teams from the first basket would hardly want to face. The French Paris Saint-Germain ended the last season with another championship title of League 1, so they entered the new campaign with another attempt to reach at least the final. And at the same time pretend that the departure of Kylian Mbappe in the summer did not affect anything at all.

However, throughout the confrontation, the impression remained that Luis Enrique’s team still lacked something ahead. For example, the realization of scoring chances, because if there were relatively few of them in the first half, then after the break, the head started spinning from the constant attacks of the capital team. And the scored goals never came.

In particular, due to some very bright saves from Hassaniga, while the character on the opposite side of the pitch we hardly mentioned, apart from the interesting moment of Stuani, so that’s fine. Good for us, maybe, but not for Girona, because the defensive game was expected from Michel’s team, but so toothless in the attack, when the opponents allowed too much in some places, it was still not worth playing.

PSG entered the game with a “false nine” in the form of Asensio, but already in the 39th minute he grabbed the back of his thigh and Kolo Muani appeared on the field. As a result, French football became more vertical, but already in the second half, which formally opened the same moment with the participation of Stouani, but soon Girona began to be smeared with a thin layer on its penalty area.

It is better not to look at the statistics after the game at all, because there the advantage of Enrique’s team looks as if only one team was on the field. But this was only partly true, because the block from the Catalans held on to the last even in difficult situations, but there is one but.

Formally, Michel, with his decision to add Frances to the defense as a replacement for Tsygankov in the last minutes, lost this game, because it was the defender who in a moment put his foot under Mendesh’s cross, after which the ball flew between the legs of Gassanizi. Although the goalkeeper himself is to blame for this situation, and this misfortune simply nullified all the saves, sometimes bordering on fantasy, that the Argentinian made before that.

In the next round, the French Paris Saint-Germain will play away from the London Arsenal, and the Catalan Girona will host the Dutch Feyenoord.

PSG — Girona 1:0
Goal: Hassaniga, 90 (author)

PSG: Safonov — Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Mendes — Zaire-Emery, Vitinha (Kan In, 63), Ruiz (Neves, 63) — Dembele (Beraldo, 90+2), Asensio (Kolo Muani, 39), Barcola (Duet, 63).

Girona: Gassaniga – A. Martinez, Lopez, Krejci, Gutierrez – Martin (Solis, 65), Romeu, van de Beek (Danjuma, 59) – Tsygankov (Frances, 88), Gil (Asprilha, 66) – Stuani (Porto, 58) .

Warnings: Krejci, Romeu, Gassaniga