Lee Kang-in's team, France's prestigious Paris Saint-Germain PSG, who could not penetrate Girona's iron wall defense, barely laughed with a dramatic score.
PSG won 1-0 thanks to Nunu Mendes' winning goal in the first leg of the 2024-2025 UEFA Champions League 'League Phase' against Girona at the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris, France on the 19th.
In this season's change to the "League phase" system, PSG struggled as it failed to create many chances against Girona in its first game. However, Nuno Mendes' finishing goal scored at the end of the second half to secure a new victory.
Starting this season, the Champions League will battle a total of eight teams randomly drawn two teams from four ports after the group stage disappears and 36 teams advance to the finals, and the results will determine the teams that advance to the finals. The first to eighth teams out of the 36 teams will go straight to the round of 16, and 9 to 24 teams will play in pairs for the playoffs, where the winning team will go to the round of 16.
Lee Kang-in played as a substitute in the second half and revitalized the team's attack, but failed to score an attack point.
PSG started the game as a 4-3-3 model. Matvei Saponov, the goalkeeper, wore gloves, while Mendes, Willian Pacho, Marquiños, and Ashraf Hakimi formed the defense. Fabian Lewis, Vitinya, and Warren Zaire-Emery guarded the midfield. Bradley Barcola, Marco Asensio, and Usman Dembele joined the front line.
Girona also faced off with a 4-3-3 formation. Paolo Gasani defended the goalkeeper, Miguel Gutierrez, Radislav Kreich, David López and Arnaut Martinez. Donny Pandervik, Oriol Lomeu and Ivan Martine defended the midfield. Brian Hill, Christian Stuani and Viktor Tsikhankou came out to score.
PSG had a chance early in the first half. Hakimi connected to Zaire-Emery from right to center in the 11th minute. Emery tried a mid-range shot but it was slightly off the mark.
A minute later, Asensio also attempted a left-footed shot from inside the box and passed the goal.
In the 27th minute of the first half, Hakimi spilled a teammate's pass back in the box and Fabian Lewis tried to shoot a mid-range shot, but it was blocked by a defensive block.
PSG, which finished the first half without any income, had a decisive opportunity in the second half. In the eighth minute of the second half, Dembele started a counterattack. Subi Krejic followed to the end and blocked Dembele in the box to overcome the critical crisis situation.
Dembele tried to shoot with a close right post in the box a minute later, but was blocked by Gasaniga's good defense.
In the 17th minute of the second half, Dembele tried to shoot from the right side of the box again, and Gasaniga's good defense came out again.
In the 18th minute of the second half, Lee Kang-in was eventually replaced. João Neves and Desiree were also replaced at the same time. Vitinha and Barcola Fabian Lewis were missing.
Lee Kang-in scored a sharp corner kick from the left in the 25th minute of the second half, and Randang Colo Moani tried to header, but it went out of the goal.
In the 36th minute of the second half, Mooyi got a pass from a teammate inside the box, turned around superbly and immediately attempted a shot. However, he was frustrated as he missed the goal even with this.
PSG's frustrating attack eventually paid off due to Gasaniga's decisive mistake. In the 45th minute of the second half, Nuno Mendes advanced deep on the left side and attempted a low cross. It headed into Gasaniga's arms, but the ball passed the hugging hand and went through the crotch.
It was a lucky score for PSG, reporting its first lucky win in the Champions League at home. Girona, who had his debut match in the Champions League, seemed to have achieved a result by drawing against a world-class team in the enemy territory, but failed to register his debut win due to a mistake at the last minute.
According to soccer statistics company Potmob, Lee Kang-in played for 27 minutes and received a 7.1 rating for his excellent performance on both sides of the offense and defense, including 100% 14/14 pass success rate, three chances creation, one dribble success, two accurate crosses, one long pass success, and 80% 4/5 ground competition success rate.
Lee Kang-in was mainly a right winger this season, but he is often a replacement as Dembele was selected first. The game was played as a substitute and entered the left-center midfielder position, where Vitinha was, and showed a sharp appearance in the attack scene.
In the fifth round of the first round of the league phase held on the same day, Manchester City England, the winner of the 2022-2023 season, called home Inter Milan Italy, who clashed in the final at the time, but drew 0-0.
Last season's Europa League winner Bologna also had a 0-0 draw with Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine at home. The prestigious Scottish team defeated Slovakia's Slovan Bratislava 5-1 at home. Korean winger Yang Hyun-joon was included in the substitution list for Celtic on the day, but failed to participate. 토토사이트 모음
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