Paris beaten in the Trophée des Champions
Paris Saint-Germain were defeated by Lille in the Trophée des Champions (1-0). Here's how it happened.
In their return to competitive action, the Parisians travelled to the Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv with a single goal on their mind: try to retain the Trophée des Champions that they have won in the last eight seasons.
Without a number of senior players, Mauricio Pochettino lined up with a different starting eleven with two players making their competitive debuts for the club: Eric Junior Dina-Ebimbe and Achraf Hakimi. Against the French champions though it was bound to be a tough task.
And from the off it was the case as Lille were dangerous in this intense heat. Burak Yilmaz got the first chance of the game (6'). But Mauricio Pochettino's men fought back.An unstoppable Achraf Hakimi marauded down the right hand side and Presnel Kimpembe was solid as ever. Julian Draxler then tried his luck (44'), as the Parisians upped the tempo.
The Northerners didn't stop coming forward though and after Burak Yilmaz was denied by Keylor Navas (40'), the Costa Rica goalkeeper was beaten by a snapshot from the edge of the area by Xeka just before the break (1-0, 45').
In the second half the Rouge et Bleu had to break Lille down. And there were close to doing so... Abdou Diallo's header whistled past Jardim's post (56'), and Icardi scored from a Wijnaldum pass before being called offside (74'). And unfortunately the Argentine striker's final effort was caught Jardim (88e). Paris Saint-Germain gave everything they had to try and force through the solid Lille defence and jeté Wijnaldum was once more denied by the opposition keeper (90').
An impressive level of persistence was unfortunately not enough in these final exhausting minutes. The score did not change.
Despite a solid performance, Paris Saint-Germain lost the Trophée des Champions and will now look ahead to their 2021-22 Ligue 1 campaign.