PSG came from behind to win the Super Cup on penalties

Prior to the UEFA Super Cup game against Champions League champions Paris Saint Germain, Tottenham footballers already had no less than six pre-season games under the new boss Thomas Frank, including three big teams (Newcastle, Arsenal, Bayern). Unlike them, PSG players touched the ball for the first time just seven day ago, when they returned to training. The Parisians were resting since the FIFA Club World Cup final with Chelsea (13th of July), which they lost 3-0 and didn’t have any friendly matches, but where thrown into the fire against Tottenham. Still it didn’t matter, as they somehow managed to score two goals in the space of 10 minutes, equalize to 2-2 in the 96th minute an then win the penalty shootout!

Ambitious PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi would never miss a chance to win quadruple (Ligue 1, Champions League, Club World Cup and Super Cup), but since Chelsea won the FIFA competition, the decision was probably was to give player a decent amount of rest, without any obligation to win against Tottenham. The absence of a proper pre-season was evident, but Frank and his players didn’t care about that. They wanted a trophy and they were fighting for it. Coach Luis Enrique was vocal before this game and assured their fans that they believe in a victory, but without a single pre-season match and with only seven days of training, a win was not real, not against fully prepared Spurs. The Paris fans were more interested in the Gigio Donnarumma situation, as the Italian keeper is leaving PSG and was not registered for this match. Until the 85th minute, Tottenham was a better team and led 2-0, but Enrique’s ‘golden’ substitutions scored goals in the 85th (Lee) and 96th minute (Ramos) to tie the game. The penalty shootout is always a game of nerves but Spurs players were a bit more distracted and missed two shots (Van Den Ven and Tel) which eventually gave PSG the victory.

Until the 38th minute of the first half, we saw a lullaby with virtually only one shot on goal which happened in the 23rd minute. Richarlison took the ball from Dembele and he and Kudus organized a quick counter attack. The Brazilian got the ball again and his prefect shot was saved by new boy Chevalier with a great effort. But he was helpless 15 minutes later when Spurs got the lead. Marquinhos was unlucky as he header moved the ball into the back of Van de Ven and then to Palhinha, whose snapshot is tipped onto the bar. Van de Ven had a striker's instinct to get himself to it first and smash it home for the lead. Tottenham nearly doubled the lead in the last minute of the half. Kudus nodded against the near post when the ball's knocked across goal in the second phase - but PSG scrambled it away before anyone could bury the rebound.

All that Chevalier did in the first half was overshadowed by his poor reaction in the 48th minute, when another Tottenham center back scored the second goal. Porro's free-kick was again aimed over to the far post where again, Romero was waiting. He was all alone but still his header was not so strong. However, Chevalier was a bit clumsy and the ball went into the net. Paris Saint Germain finally made a shot on target in the 65th minute and even scored in the 66th (Barcola), but it was overturned due to offside.The Parisians finally scored when a substitute Lee made a precise shot from the edge of the penalty area to the bottom left corner, but it looked like it was not enough as it was 85th minute. But another sub, Goncalo Ramos scored the equalizer deep in injury time and game the fans in the stadium in Udine a chance to see a penalty shootout, in which the Parisians prevailed.