Solskjaer After PSG: “We Have Mountains to Climb”

Even without Neymar and Edinson Cavani, Paris Saint-Germain easily defeated Manchester United in England, 2-0.

The French champions inflicted the first loss to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer since he took over the managerial role at the Old Trafford. All the euphoria and high hopes just vanished in the span of eight minutes during the second half, when Kimpembe and Mbappe scored one goal each.

“Today is a reality check for us,” said Solskjaer after the game.

The Norwegian manager wasn’t upset because of this defeat at all, and it seems that he took it calmly, knowing that his team couldn’t do more against a much better opponent.

Solskjaer admitted after the game that his team simply didn’t have enough games this season, in which they could play at this level. Also, the young coach said that this isn’t something which should be used for further learning and improving.

“You could see that we hadn’t played at this level for a while and we will have to learn. It was an experience that can go either way, it’s not going to be a season-defining one, it’s one we have to learn from.”

https://twitter.com/sports_esm/status/1095432263741906945

United opened the game aggressively, and they tried to impose their tempo of play. PSG denied all that and waited for the counter-attacks, which in the end resulted in a goal.

With the first half nearing down to its end, PSG was becoming more and more dangerous. Mbappe was making a whole lot of troubles to Manchester’s defenders, and they were forced to make hard fouls, to prevent him from scoring a goal. It is how several of them received yellow cards.

According to most of the experts and their postgame analysis, the key moments of this match took place in the last moments of the first half. Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard both picked up injuries, and they had to go out during the break.

These two guys were the most important features in Solskjaer’s tactics, and they were in charge of keeping the Saints’ defensive midfielders on their part of the pitch, not allowing them to go up front, and leave their area of the field unprotected.

Plus, this duo is very fast, and they were able to give a hard time to PSG’s back line.

“You can’t say that’s a reason, we had quality players to come on but Lingard and Martial give us something,” said Manchester’s manager after the event.

As soon as the second half began, we could see a change on the field, because the guests’ started seizing the control of the tempo.

After one corner and a sloppy reaction of Nemanja Matic, Kimpembe smashed the ball into De Gea’s net. Eight minutes later, one quick counter-attack down the left side through Di Maria. The pacey attacker made a perfect pass to Mbappe who executed routinely.

SPEED. KILLS. 👀@KMbappe meets Di Maria's perfect cross to double PSG's lead! (via @brlive) https://t.co/wvFC7Bk9iS

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) February 12, 2019

The final result could have even been worse, but the Spanish goalkeeper saved the Red Devils on several occasions.

Saints were dominating until the final whistle, forcing many fans to leave the stadium earlier, as they couldn’t watch their team struggling. Paul Pogba was so frustrated that he received a red card after saying something to the referee.

Following the game, Tomas Tuchel was direct, and without any false modesty said that his team was a better side and that they deserved to win.

“We deserved to win, and to do so here at Old Trafford just now, I congratulate my team” and continued with a warning to his players, saying that nothing is yet over. “It’s only half-time and we still have to play at the Parc des Princes.”

United will have a chance to redeem for this disappointment, but to be perfectly honest, the prospects for such an outcome are just too small.

For Solskjaer it is more important that this group continues to learn and grow. And to do that, they will have to work very hard. There is no time to waste thinking about this or some previous setback.

“Mountains are there to be climbed,” he said. “You can’t lay down and say ‘this is over’. We will go there, play our game and improve from today.”

The rematch is on the 6th of March, so there will be plenty of time for improvement.