Paris Saint-Germain won against Le Havre on Friday (2-0). Here is what to remember from this first meeting led by Luis Enrique.
Before flying off to the end of the world, the Parisians returned to the field for a friendly opposition against a formation from France, as usual. It was Ligue 2 champion Le Havre, promoted to the top flight this season, who rubbed shoulders with the 2023 French champions this Friday. After a return to school in a good mood at the Campus, a brand new training center located in Poissy, Luis Enrique had his first match on the Parisian bench. And his team responded with a 2-0 victory after a very serious performance.
The composition
Luis Enrique did not hesitate to throw a few summer recruits into the deep end. Lucas Hernandez, Manuel Ugarte Marco Asensio or even Lee Kang-in were lined up in the starting lineup, while Milan Skriniar entered at the break.
The French world champion and the Slovak defender were particularly scrutinized after the physical glitches that plagued them during the first 6 months of the year. Both were reassuring.
In addition, Kylian Mbappé started on the bench as did other executives of the workforce, such as Marquinhos, still captain, Marco Verratti. No Neymar, however. The Brazilian, who will resume collective training next week, had not been called up but he was present at the edge of the lawn.
Paris SG: Letellier – Hakimi, Danilo, Hernandez, Kurzawa – Zaire-Emery, Ugarte, Fabian Ruiz – Lee, Asensio, Gharbi.
animation
A great follower of 4-3-3 since the start of his coaching career, Luis Enrique announced the color. It is in this system that the Spanish technician concocted his first eleven for this friendly match. With a low point (Ugarte) in front of a four-man defense and a central striker brought in to work defensively – here Asensio – the Parisians are fine-tuning their circuits in this scheme. It marks a fairly clear break with the Galtier era. Luis Enrique’s predecessor had often preferred 3-4-3, 3-5-2 or 4-4-2 to 4-3-3. And the animation was quite distinct when he used it. Paris should repeat its scales in this new collective framework. The tour in Japan will be an ideal opportunity to tweak the automation.
The states of form
Unsurprisingly, Luis Enrique had to deal with quite disparate states of form. Overall, however, the Parisians appeared quite sharp. In the group of rookies, Lee Kang-in appeared technically at ease, triggering the main opportunity of the first period half an hour into the game, with an action concluded by a shot off target from young Gharbi (30th). The South Korean then left his place after feeling discomfort. More difficult to find, Marco Asensio tried to shine on one of his strengths, the strike from mid-distance. Without more success.
With a completely reshaped team in the second half, where only Gharbi continued, Paris finally found the opening in two stages thanks to Hugo Ekitike after returning from the locker room. Kylian Mbappé, entered him in the middle of the second period. Very complicit with his brother Ethan, who gave him a great opening, the world champion already has ants in his legs, as often in this summer period. His runs were incisive, and on a one-two with another reinforcement, Cher Ndour, number 7 scored the second Parisian goal, close, a few minutes from the end. On the goalkeeper side, Alexandre Letellier started before being replaced by Keylor Navas, then finding his place and getting injured in the second half. Without gravity.
