BBC-Angel di Maria scored twice
against former employers Real Madrid as Paris St-Germain began their Champions
League Group A campaign with a comfortable win.
Thomas Meunier’s stoppage-time goal
added more embarrassment for the Spanish giants – and heightened the pressure
on Real manager Zinedine Zidane, whose win ratio is below 50% since returning
to the club towards the end of last season.
Eden Hazard, making his first start
for the visitors, showed some nice touches but struggled to influence
proceedings, as a Real old boy stole the show.
Celebrating his 100th appearance in
the competition, Di Maria opened the scoring with a close-range shot that crept
inside Thibaut Courtois’ near post from Juan Bernat’s pass.
While Real’s Belgian goalkeeper
Courtois appeared to be caught out for the opening goal, he could do nothing to
prevent the second.
Idrissa Gueye’s fine work on the
right created the opening for Di Maria, who found the bottom right corner
superbly with a curling effort from 20 yards.
Hopes of a Real fight-back were
briefly raised when Gareth Bale lobbed the ball magnificently over home keeper
Keylor Navas from the edge of the penalty area.
However, his goal was ruled out for
handball by referee Anthony Taylor after it was reviewed by video assistant
referee (VAR) officials, as was Karim Benzema’s offside effort late in the
second period.
And a miserable night for Real and
Zidane was compounded as Juan Bernat and Meunier, strolled through the visiting
defence before Belgian full-back Meunier placed the ball into the bottom right
corner.
It confirmed that PSG, who were
without their entire first-choice strike force of Neymar, Edinson Cavani and
Kylian Mbappe, halted a run of three consecutive defeats against the Spanish
club.
While Paris St-Germain were – on
paper at least – noticeably under strength without their celebrated front
three, they still easily had too much firepower for Real.
That was largely down to Di Maria,
Pablo Sarabia and loan signing Mauro Icardi – supposedly the supporting cast –
who exhibited the guile and movement to bewilder a Madrid defence shorn of the
leadership of Sergio Ramos.
Di Maria in particular produced a
performance that rolled back the years to his days patrolling the flank over
five seasons at the Bernabeu.
The 31-year-old Argentina winger
made almost 200 appearances for Real and was named man of the match as the
Spanish giants claimed their 10th European Cup/Champions League trophy against
neighbours Atletico in 2014.
Just as on that night in Lisbon, he
was at his best with his elusive running and clever positioning, tormenting
Real full-back Dani Carvajal.
Aside from scoring twice, Di Maria
cut the visitors open on several occasions with Sarabia sliding an effort wide
after being picked out by his colleague.
And Di Maria, whose exuberant
celebrations after both goals will have rankled with Real supporters, could
have rounded off his evening with a hat-trick – narrowly failing with a scooped
effort over Courtois that landed on the roof of the Real net.
While
Real Madrid have won the European football’s most prestigious competition a
record 13 times, this performance suggested they may struggle to negotiate the
group stage.
Despite spending heavily in the
summer, Zidane’s side lacked the intensity and quality to compete for long
periods and he will have been dismayed by the manner in which PSG scored their
third goal.
Of his summer recruits, Hazard,
Ferland Mendy and Eder Militao – the only starters – endured difficult evenings
against a PSG team that pressed Real at every opportunity.
Forwards Luka Jovic and Rodrygo,
meanwhile, were spectators worth a combined £90m until the Serbia forward was
introduced in the 70th minute.
Yet even that did little to
galvanise the La Liga club, who failed to register a single shot on target for
the first time in 167 Champions League matches dating back to 2003-04.
In midfield, Luka Modric’s absence
was also heavily felt with Toni Kroos and Casemiro unable to wrestle control of
midfield away from Marco Verratti, Idrissa Gueye and Marquinhos.
In other matches, Club Brugge and
Galatasaray settled for a goalless draw while Tottenham threw away a two goal
lead to draw 2-2 with Olympiakos.
Bayern Munich turned Red Star
Belgrade to ordinary stars with a 3-0 victory as Dinamo Zagreb white-washed
Atalanta 4-0.
Shakhtar Donetsk could not withstand
the fire power of Manchester City as they lost at home 0-3 to the English
champions while Juventus allowed Atletico Madrid to come from two goals down to
draw their encounter 2-2.
Bayer Levrkusen lost at home 1-2 to
Lokomotiv Moscow of Russia.
