*Valverde Hattrick Puts Man City On Brink
At least there was no public humiliation for goalie Filip Jörgensen from his manager. But while Liam Rosenior did not do an Igor Tudor and hook his goalkeeper, this hurt.
It is why a goalkeeper passing out from the back only looks clever until the moment it goes wrong.
Above all, it was tough for Chelsea to take. They impressed at the Parc des Princes, twice pegging Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) back, but there was no escaping the reality that the focus was on the moment Jörgensen’s stray ball out gifted the European champions the advantage in this last-16 Champions League tie.
In the end, a sometimes flimsy but often thrilling PSG had a 5-2 lead to take to Stamford Bridge for next week’s second leg after two late goals from Kvicha Kvaratshkelia.
But the frustration for Chelsea was immense. It seemed they would silence claims their win over PSG in the Club World Cup final was a one-off.
But by full-time Enzo Fernández was arguing with Jörgensen, who was brought in by Rosenior, over his shoddy distribution.
After the farce of Tottenham’s experiment with Antonin Kinsky against Atlético Madrid, the early focus in Paris was on another big goalkeeping call.
From Rosenior, there was the boldness to start Jörgensen over Robert Sánchez. A gamble?
Sánchez excelled against PSG last summer and has been Chelsea’s undisputed No 1 – until now, with the Spaniard’s recent wobbles convincing Rosenior that this was the moment to bring Jörgensen in for the biggest game of his career.
With Ousmane Dembélé fit to start with Bradley Barcola and Desire Doué, it was a stacked PSG attack facing Jörgensen.
There was also, though, talk of an oddly vulnerable PSG team. Chelsea did their macho halfway line huddle and quickly dispensed with any notion of trying to keep it tight.
Both sides employed high-wire pressing systems. Jörgensen’s first offering was a shaky pass to Doué. Chelsea were open but passive defending received swift punishment.
PSG Open The Scoring
Dembélé crossed, João Neves nodded down and Barcola had time to take a touch before lashing PSG into a 10th-minute lead.
It felt soft. PSG looked for more. Jörgensen pushed a Dembélé shot on to the woodwork and clawed another from Barcola away.
Yet it was an end-to-end game and Chelsea found space behind PSG. Pedro Neto could have equalised after scampering past Marquinhos.
Chelsea Equalize
João Pedro headed at Matvei Safonov. There was a composure to Chelsea, Moisés Caicedo and Reece James competing in midfield, and the leveller was not a surprise.
It was a sleepy kind of goal, Fernández finding Gusto in an insulting amount of space on the right. It seemed to unfold in slow motion. No one had tracked Gusto’s run, so the right-back decided he might as well score with a shot that squirmed beneath Safonov’s weak attempt at a save.
Such poor goalkeeping posed the question of why PSG sold Gianluigi Donnarumma last summer. They are not as imposing.
Chelsea dominated for long stretches and it was almost 2-1 when James crossed for Palmer, whose shot was saved by Safonov.
PSG’s Second Goal
The ball was in the Chelsea net 14 seconds later. The surge was ferocious. Doué released Dembélé and the Frenchman should have passed it. Achraf Hakimi, the PSG left-back, had made a lung-busting run to his left. The pass was the option.
Dembélé was greedy. He chopped back to fool Wesley Fofana and, just as his teammates were preparing to scream at him, he silenced them by sliding a low shot past Jörgensen.
Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah had been caught out in the buildup. Chelsea had to go again.
Second Half
However the game was more controlled at the second half. Chelsea were wary of playing such a high line and PSG looked to Vitinha to guide them through long spells of possession.
If anything it was too guarded from the French champions. On 58 minutes, Nuno Mendes tried a switch of play but left it short. Neto read the flight of the ball and, as if determined to make up for his red card against Arsenal, cantered beyond a creaking Marquinhos before centring for Fernández to fire past Safonov from 12 yards.
Critical Substitution
PSG readied a change, Kvaratshkelia replacing Doué. There was an inconsistency to the hosts, who followed outrageous pieces of skill with bemusing loose touches.
The injured Fabian Ruiz was missed in midfield and there was a sense of PSG, whose energy levels have been hit by last summer’s exertions and the lack of a proper pre-season, tiring as the minutes ticked away.
Chelsea Goalie ‘Gifts’ Ball To PSG
Dembélé went off. The game was drifting until Jörgensen’s gift. Under no pressure, the Dane’s underhit ball out was intercepted by Barcola, Kvaratshkelia passed inside Vitinha and the Portugal midfielder lifted a beautiful lob over Jörgensen.
Chelsea tried to respond. But when Kvarateshkelia cut in from the left to unleash a stunning shot that flashed beyond Jorgensen, they were left with a mountain to climb.
Valverde’s Astonishing Real Madrid Hat-trick Leaves Manchester City On Brink
Federico Valverde was the Real Madrid hero who wrote himself into this storied club’s folklore with an immortal first-half, 22-minute hat-trick that decimated Manchester City and cast Pep Guardiola as a tactical novice.
Each of Valverde’s goals were a diagram of his supreme skill and City’s chump-like defending that leaves their hopes of a quarter-final berth near extinct.
If Vinícius Júnior had netted a second-half penalty, Real could all but celebrate progression, yet if City score early in Tuesday’s return who knows.
Guardiola promised “no surprises” tactically yet spurned a golden chance at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Real missed the injured Kylian Mbappé, Rodrygo, Jude Bellingham, Álvaro Carreras and Éder Militão, so Álvaro Arbeloa’s resources were stretched.
Factor in how the absent Mbappé’s 13 strikes led the competition and the seven-goal Erling Haaland was back after not playing in Saturday’s FA Cup win at Newcastle, and the record 15-times winners could be billed as underdogs.
By the close, this felt fanciful and so Guardiola’s mission is to revitalise a group who fly home severely bruised at the campaign’s defining phase.
Real’s pre-kickoff entertainment roused the senses. It featured a reel of Champions League final goals – including Gareth Bale’s showstopping overhead kick – plus a volume-shattering play of the new anthem with a lyric, “historia por hacer” (more history to be made) which Arbeloa’s men embodied as they ripped City apart.
How Match Went
After Brahim Díaz forced a point-blank Gianluigi Donnarumma save, the forward regained his feet and urged the madridistas to roar, which they did.
Previous to this, Real were composed in defence when Haaland charged into their area: Trent Alexander-Arnold outmuscled the giant No 9, dummied and coolly ran from danger, again to a massive cheer.
Guardiola’s configuration was the 4-2-2-2 of recent games that featured three wingers in Jérémy Doku, Savinho and Antoine Semenyo, the last of who partnered Haaland up top.
It was ultra-attacking with Alexander-Arnold’s right-back flank targeted and for a while it worked. Doku and Nico O’Reilly each threatened from City’s left, bouncing crosses before Thibaut Courtois that begged to be finished.
From one Doku effort, a corner was claimed. A training ground drill ensued as Bernardo Silva fired the ball in low for Semenyo but he slipped and the ball smacked off his head.
Madrid’s First Goal
Now came the opening salvo of joy for Real and Valverde, and disaster for City, specifically O’Reilly.
Courtois launched a diagonal downfield to the captain who was on the right. He took the ball on the full, dodged O’Reilly, who should have at least felled him, and ran for goal.
Donnarumma charged out but the No 8 slipped the ball one side, ran the other way and, from a narrow angle, bulged the net.
City, made to appear mugs, were victims of Guardiola’s gung-ho selection which was pace-heavy and missing the extra guile of Phil Foden or Rayan Cherki.
Valverde Scores A Second
They paid dearly again due to more hapless rearguard action. This time Vinícius drove along the left, scattering City. The Brazilian’s pass hit a turning Rúben Dias on the boot, diverting the ball to Valverde who, after a look, lashed beyond Donnarumma into the far corner, this time with his left foot.
The spectacle was end-to-end, rather than the Rodri-led controlled stuff that is the Guardiola tenet.
After the half hour, the Spaniard began to pass and move forcing Real into a brief passage of chase-ball, but next came Valverde’s sublime hat-trick finish.
The Hattrick
Abdukodir Khusanov, in for Matheus Nunes at right-back, was the City defender who this time fell asleep, allowing Vinícius to race down the left. When the ball eventually went right Díaz’s chip was lunged at by Marc Guéhi – except Valverde was quicker, lofting the ball over him and running on and volleying home for one of the all-time hat-trick clinching goals, leaving City 3-0 behind at the break.
Second Half
For the second period Fran García replaced Ferland Mendy at left-back for Real and Guardiola hauled off Savinho for the midfielder Tijjani Reijnders: evidence of the error of his original selection.
Moments into the restart Díaz ripped through City and shot, Donnarumma saved, and while Dias blocked Vinícius’s follow-up, Real sucker-punched their guest again.
At a Silva corner the ball fell to Alexander-Arnold, whose raking pass was chased by Vinícius. The speedster was caught by Khusanov in City’s area but, swerving left, Donnarumma caught him. Maurizio Mariani awarded a penalty and the Italian was booked.
Now a lifeline as Real’s playmaker hit the kick right and Donnarumma saved. Four-nil and it was surely tie over as Vinícius knew: a dribble and shot seconds after his miss nearly making amends.
Real wanted a second spot-kick when Dias’s challenge toppled Díaz but the centre-back took the ball. Courtois, largely unworked, saved from O’Reilly but City were impotent and so a Real clean sheet felt as apt as the win was dominant.
ALL THE RESULTS:
*Bayer Leverkusen – Arsenal 1:1
*Bodo/Glimt – Sporting CP 3:0
*PSG – Chelsea 5:2
*Real Madrid – Manchester City 3:0
*PHOTO CAPTION: Valverde (l) scoring one of the goals.
