Ferran Torres picks the ball up and passes it to João Neves. The Portuguese midfielder plays it into Ousmane Dembélé, who has lured in Raphaël Le Guen and eliminates him with a mesmeric first-time back-heel into the path of Torres. The Brest defence are just cones in a training drill, mere extras in this work of art as the Spaniard glides back into the scene to pass the ball into Egil Selvik’s bottom corner from 25 yards; it happened in slow motion but was too quick for the Norwegian goalkeeper to react.
It is a move that had the slick and elegant fluidity of what we have come to expect from Paris Saint-Germain. Just four minutes in, the champions were ahead, and the Stade Francis Le-Blé anticipated a show of force, a statement from their visitors. Earlier in the week, Luis Enrique had described PSG’s start to the Ligue 1 season as “catastrophic”.
A comfortable 6-1 win against minnows Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League in midweek signalled a welcome return to form. The Slovakian side’s manager, none other than Yaya Touré, described his opponents on the night as a “machine” – we’ve heard that before. But once again, PSG were defective in Brittany on Sunday night, even if they did leave with all three points.
Torres’ sublime finish was the only goal of the game. It was the Spaniard’s sixth since joining from Barcelona over the summer. Incredibly, all of his six efforts on target this season have found the net.
He is clearly still riding the crest of a wave of confidence, having scored the winner in the World Cup final earlier this summer. Torres’ supreme confidence is not shared by his teammates. Vitinha in particular has yet to resurface since the summer break and PSG collectively are suffering from the lack of incision that he usually provides.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is not quite back to his usual levels either and going into this game, there were creeping doubts about Matvey Safonov in goal. The Russian was at fault last weekend as Stanis Idumbo finished at his near post to secure a win for Monaco. It was at his near post that he conceded to Kai Havertz in the Champions League final in May; if there is a weakness in PSG’s armour, Safonov was the most likely candidate.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
