PSG and Javier Pastore Destroy Lyon 4-1 to Lift Trophee des Champions

On Saturday night, in Klagenfurt, Austria, Paris Saint-Germain, with Argentinian playmaker Javier Pastore at the forefront of the attack, put the rest of Ligue 1 on notice.

The Parisians didn’t just win the Trophee des Champions, the first silverware of the season, they sent a message to the rest of France and Europe with their 4-1 win over Olympique Lyonnais.

Under Unai Emery, it seems there will be no post-Zlatan Ibrahimovic hangover. PSG are here to play, and they look set to destroy all challengers.

Just finished the #TDC2016. Poor Lyon. Rafael and Darder the worst of an iffy bunch. PSG, w/o at least 4 of first choice XI, v impressive

— Eric Devin (@erictalkssoccer) August 7, 2016

Bruno Genesio, the Lyon coach, sent out a very strong XI to compete with the French champions, but he got his tactics all wrong.

Nabil Fekir joined Maxwel Cornet and Alexandre Lacazette in attack, but only six of OL’s 16 shots found the target.

The midfield of Corentin Tolisso, Sergi Darder, and Maxime Gonalons controlled plenty of the ball—not something PSG under Laurent Blanc had to deal with often—but even with 58.7 per cent possession, they were never really in charge.

Always said that #PSG is more fun to watch without Ibra.Still think we need a striker to cover up for the loss of him though. Lukaku?

— Andreas Karlsson (@AndKarlsson) August 6, 2016

PSG played with purpose, directness and pace. Lyon, to their downfall, played a high defensive line, and Jeremy Morel, Nicolas Nkoulou, Mapou Yanga M’Biwa and Rafael were caught out time and time again.

Lyon failed to put pressure on the Parisian midfield, and with David Luiz, Thiago Motta, and Benjamin Stambouli allowed time and space to pick their passes, the attack thrived.

Angel Di Maria told the official PSG website after the game:

It’s never easy to win, and even more so to continue to do it. We have had an excellent pre-season. Everyone has played and everyone feels involved. It’s important. We have worked a lot with the new technical staff and you can see the result on the pitch: we press more, we go forward more quickly. The coach asks a lot of us, but you can already see the result with a first trophy.

The Argentinian forward started on the left, different from his role under Blanc last term, but he was allowed to drift, find space and make sure he was always available for the ball.

Hatem Ben Arfa played as the false nine, and although he scored PSG’s third, he was fairly quiet compared to his team-mates. The real standout …

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