PSG defeats Nantes to win Trophée des Champions

 

Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain have emerged the Trophée des Champions winners after thrashing Nante 4-0.

Lionel Messi, who struggled for form after joining the Paris club from Barcelona on a free transfer, was the star of the night in the absence of suspended Kylian Mbappe at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium.

The boys finally secured Christophe Galtier’s first trophy of the season. The tactician no doubt had enough players to choose from. He applied what looks to be becoming his preferred 3-4-1-2 formation.

In the game dominated by the champions,  Achraf Hakimi had the first chance early on after neat interplay in the Nantes box. Alban Lafont had it covered with an easy safe from his shot.

In the search of the opener, Marquinhos rattled the crossbar with a header following a Messi corner.

Les Canaris held on, knowing that they are capable of hitting PSG on the break. This made  Gigi Donnarumma be on alert as he had to be on his toes to keep a curling Ludovic Blas attempt out from the edge of the area in the 19th minute.

Three minutes later, PSG finally broke the deadlock through Messi. The six times world footballer of the year sits Lafont down with his left foot before firing high into his goal with his right.

After his shot shaved the far post, Neymar eventually got his name on the scoresheet with PSG’s second goal of the night in first-half injury-time. The Brazilian steered home a fine free-kick to double their lead.

PSG soon made it three five minutes after the restart through Sergio Ramos. It was all down to an exchange of passes between Evann Guessand and Messi before Ramos made it 3-0 from the rebound of Pablo Sarabia’s shot.

Neymar then made it four in the 82nd minute from the penalty spot after being felled by Jean-Charles Castelletto, who was sent off for the challenge on the Brazilian.

 

Written by: Oladipupuo Mojeed