Paris Saint-Germain saw off a spirited Juventus side at the Allianz Stadium on Wednesday evening, but the win wasn’t enough for them to top Group H.
Goals from Kylian Mbappe and Nuno Mendes either side of a Leonardo Bonucci striked secured the win, however Benfica’s 6-1 win over Maccabi Haifa ensure their place at the top of the group on goals scored away from home.
Despite their injuries and general incompetence thus far this season, Juventus started the game quite brightly with runners from deep in midfield causing issues for the PSG defence. A venomous Manuel Locatelli strike would fly just wide of the post from outside of the box as a result of one of these midfield bursts forward in the eighth minute.
That ‘quite bright’ start didn’t last too long however as, ultimately, one of PSG’s world class forwards provided a bit of magic to give the visitors the lead in the 14th minute.
That forward was Kylian Mbappe who brilliantly side-stepped the sliding Locatelli before cannoning the ball past Wojciech Szczesny, off of the post, and into the back of the net.
Juve continued to press forward more frequently than PSG, but every time the visitors did get into the offensive third they looked likely to score. Mbappe saw a few decent efforts fly just over the crossbar, while a quick bit of interplay between the Frenchman and Lionel Messi culminated in the latter forcing Szczesny into an awkward save at his near post.
The home side then managed to produce a bit of quality to draw level. A wonderful chipped ball over the top of the PSG defence from Locatelli found Juan Cuadrado who, instead of controlling, cleverly headed back across goal to an unmarked Leonardo Bonucci who was able to slide the ball home.
The second half proved to be rather turgid until Benfica took the lead against Maccabi Haifa, meaning that PSG had to win in order to finish top of the group. In the 68th minute the Parisiens picked up the pace a bit and re-took the lead through marauding full-back Nuno Mendes. The Portuguese international was barely on the pitch for one minute when he steamed through on goal after a slick pass in behind from Mbappe, and fired hard across goal and into the bottom right corner of the net.
Despite going behind, Juve fans were still pretty happy because, after nearly a year out with a knee injury, Federico Chiesa came off of the bench in the 74th minute. The positivity of the fans seemed to seep onto the pitch too as, moment after Chiesa was introduced, Juve had the ball of the back of the net.
Locatelli reacted quickest at the back post to tap home the ball following a save from Gianluigi Donnarumma, but the offside flag quickly went up to halt the celebrations.
GK: Wojciech Szczesny (5); CB: Federico Gatti (6); CB: Leonardo Bonucci (7); CB: Alex Sandro (7); RWB: Juan Cuadrado (7); CM: Nicolo Fagioli (7); CM: Manuel Locatelli (6); CM: Adrien Rabiot (7); LWB: Filip Kostic (7); AM: Fabio Mirretti (6); ST: Arkadiusz Milik (6).
SUB: Federico Chiesa (6), Matias Soule (N/A), Enzo Barrenechea (N/A).
GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma (6); RB: Achraf Hakimi (6); CB: Sergio Ramos (7); CB: Marquinhos (7); LB: Juan Bernat (6); CM: Vitinha (7); CM: Marco Verratti (7); CM: Fabian Ruiz (6); AM: Carlos Soler (6); ST: Kylian Mbappe (9); ST: Lionel Messi (8)
SUB: Renato Sanches (6), Hugo Ekitike (5), Nuno Mendes (8), Danilo Pereira (N/A).
