A successful final test before Europe

A few days after lifting the Coupe de la Ligue against Lyon and the Coupe de France against Saint-Etienne, Les Parisiens were back at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday evening for a friendly against FC Sochaux-Montbéliard. A match without spectators, that was played over two halves of 40 minutes, and allowed numerous young prospects to feature as part of Thomas Tuchel's squad, under the watchful eyes of the senior players that had been rested. 

Led by Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, Pablo Sarabia and Arnaud Kalimuendo, Les Rouge et Bleu demonstrated from the very get go their desire to get the ball down and play. It therefore proved difficult for Les Sochaliens to get out of their own half. The first chance for the home side was the decisive one. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting made the most of a misunderstanding between Florentin Pogba and Maxence Prévot to open the scoring with a perfect side-footed effort (1-0, 15').

Another chance fell the way of Thomas Tuchel's side after a beautiful team move, starting with Pablo Sarabia and Choupo-Moting, and Colin Dagba could have buried the visitors once and for all (25') while Leandro Paredes saw his penalty stopped by Maxence Prévot in the minutes that followed (26'). At the other end, Keylor Navas maintained his focus, particularly when Ndour tried his luck (39').

The line-up didn't change after the break, apart from in goal for Les Parisiens, where Sergio Rico came on and Leandro Paredes took the captain's armband. Les Parisiens continued in the same light and called the Sochaux keeper into action on several occasions, with chances falling to Pablo Sarabia (48'), Arnaud Kalimuendo (49') and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (52').

A brave performance from Les Lionceaux and they even tried to push for the equaliser, but were unable to find a way through the Paris Saint-Germain defence. On the hour mark, Bernat, Herrera, Dagba and Paredes made way for Kays Ruiz, Idrissa Gueye, Mitchel Bakker and Timothee Pembele. The latter leaving his mark with some smart work on his wing (67').

At the end of the match, the team was made up of 8 U19 players, who were tasked with keeping the score as was... After a final strike from Idrissa Gueye, the referee brought proceedings to an end (0-1) and Les Parisiens head into Europe on the back of a win. 

They will travel to Portugal on Saturday for a training camp in Faro before heading up to Lisbon, where they will face Atalanta on Wednesday evening, as the quarter finals of the Champions League get underway.