Pushed all the way

News

The context
After falling to Lyon on Sunday, Paris Saint-Germain were looking to bounce back at the same Groupama Stadium with Villefranche their opponents in a Last 16 Coupe de France tie. The hosts had knocked out Les Herbiers, the side Paris had beaten in last season's final. It was a potential banana skin for the four-time defending champions, who had not lost any of their last 26 ties in the competition.

The key moments
It's the charm of the Coupe de France that can see the game pushed into 120 minutes, and the third-division hosts managed to hold out for 102 of them...Paris Saint-Germain could have cut short the suspense though. Moussa Diaby missed the target with an early chance (13') and Angel Di Maria found the side-netting (16'). Villefranche set about chasing the ball, but also created chances through Nicolas Burel (28') and Ali M'Madi (43' as Paris had eight shots, none on target, before the break.

Arnold Lemb went close just after the interval (49') and Edinson Cavani, who had come off the bench just four minutes earlier, could have taken the Rouge-et-Bleu through, but Antoine Philippon was equal to his free-kick (83'). And so into extra-time where Cavani teed up another subsitute, Julian Draxler, to finally break the deadlock (0-1, 102'). Kylian Mbappé was just as unselfish in presenting Diaby with the chance to make it two (0-2, 113e) before Cavani got in on the act himself (0-3, 119'). Villefranche bow out with heads held high while Paris' quest for a 13th Coupe de France goes on.

A Parisian in the match: Leandro Paredes
His 12 minutes against OL gave him a taste of the league, he had ten times more this evening to get himself settled in. For his first start, the Argentine lived up to his reputation, and provided a delightful pass for Juan Bernat too (24'). Very promising!

The word: Extra-time
It had been almost six years - since April 2013 in fact when they were knocked out by Evian - since Paris had been taken to extra-time. It marked the first time in 33 competitive outings this season that Paris had not scored inside 90 minutes.

Up next
Though they will have to wait a little to find out who they play, the Parisians can already ink in a quarter-final date on 26 or 27 February. Bordeaux are next up on Saturday (17:00CET) with Paris looking for a 12th straight league win at the Parc des Princes.