Paris Saint-Germain : Maignan- Ikoko, Sabaly, Conte, Arrondel (c) – Lacazette (Bambock, 46e), Coman, M’Baka, Sainrimat – Ongenda (Nkomb Nkomb, 71e), Chemin.
Tottenham Hotspur : Vigouroux – Barthram, Ward, Velokovic, Ball – Stewart, Mc Evoy (Michael Percil, 60e), Benjaleb (c) (Dombaye, 70e), Coulthirst – Winks (Lesniak, 70e), Lameiras (Akindayin, 61e).
This was a bitterly cold afternoon, the kind of afternoon that does not make you want to go out and play football because you know that every challenge will bring extra pain in your limbs. Perhaps better accustomed to such coarse weather, it was Tottenham who came out on top in a contest of spectacularly fluctuating quality, knocking hosts PSG out of the NextGen Series after a penalty shootout.
Under the watchful eye of Carlo Ancelotti, who recently handed a debut to two of the youngsters on the pitch (Hervin Ongenda and Kingsley Coman, who became last week the club’s youngest ever player), it was PSG who made the better start and after only 10 minutes they had managed two shots just wide of the target. Tottenham then proceeded to up their game with some aggressive man-marking and tackling on PSG’s attacking midfielders, notably Sorel Chemin on the right wing and Coman through the centre.
Upping their physical presence against a stronger and older PSG side, notably with French-born captain Benjaleb down the middle, Spurs started to dictate the tempo with a quarter of an hour on the clock through their main technical asset, Portuguese-born and London-raised Ruben Lameiras, whose ease with the ball at his feet was somewhat reminiscent of another Portuguese great who is grabbing the football headlines these days.
Chances became clearer and clearer for both sides as Alexis Saintrimat was denied by Chilean youngster Lawrence Vigouroux in the Tottenham goal, while on the other side an excellent through ball from the ubiquitous Serbian defender-turned-midfielder Milos Veljkovic provided Shaquille Coulthirst with Spurs’ first goalscoring opportunity of the game after half an hour.
Two minutes later, another long pass from Veljkovic resulted in Coulthirst receiving the ball at the edge of the PSG area, entering the box confidently and slotting home for a deserved 1-0 lead.
Tottenham starting bossing the midfield from then on and PSG only sporadically managed to get in goalscoring situations through their best individual talents, Ongenda first with a speculative punt going wide and Coman with a brilliant turn and volley that came agonisingly close.
Half-time came and Romuald Lacazette (cousin of Lyon’s Alexandre) was replaced by Franck Bomback, who impressed at an U17 tournament in Doha earlier this year. PSG came back from the changing room with a lot more determination, Sainrimat having a shot saved on the line by Jack Barthram. But in the 65th minute, he was luckier after a shot fromdistance from Ikoko which appeared to be heading wide was tucked home by the PSG number 9, to the delight of the 500-strong home crowd.
The atmosphere heatened up on an increasingly cold evening, and another of the precious Kingsley Coman’s flicks set up John-Junior Nkomb-Nkomb for a decisive one-on-one with Vigouroux in the 80th minute, only for the Tottenham keeper to parry.
Normal time failed to produce a winner and neither did the thirty minutes of extra time, with the 22 youngsters on the pitch increasingly numbed by the cold weather and physical dimension of the contest. Only a penalty shoot-out was to differentiate the two teams and as is often the case in football, Kinglsey Coman, the best outfield player during the game, missed his kick and gave Spurs an early lead. Dominic Ball missed his midway through the session, but PSG captain Alvin Arrondel failed to convert their fifth, deservedly sending Spurs to the NextGen quarterfinals and Carlo Ancelotti back to the drawing board.