Saturday night saw the eyes of the world focused on the European capital of love. Although Christian Gourcuff’s Lorient side had no plans on showing PSG any act of kindness. New signing Julien Quercia silenced the Parc des Princes after 28 minutes when Yann Jouffre’s free-kick made it all the way to the best post. The ex-Auxerre man was in the right place to apply the finish.
PSG coach Antoine Kombouare gave four of his new signings their competitive debut. The crown jewel in QSI’s plans Javier Pastore was paraded in front of a sell-out crowd but PSG fans will have to wait at least another two weeks for his debut. Kombouare saying the Argentine midfielder would not play next week against Rennes.
With the expectations of the home crowd at the highest level for a long time the atmosphere in the stands was electric, and it seemed to affect the home side more than the unfancied away side. Captain Mamadou Sakho looked very uncertain beside new signing Milan Bisevac. Usually it’s Sakho that is the dominant aerial threat but he could only win 60% of his aerial duels whereas the Serbian won every contested battle in the air.
Lorient’s great start was rewarded just before the half hour mark. Man of the Match Yann Jouffre (8.2) curled in a beautiful free-kick and it seemed to escape everyone in the box until it fell on the boots of Julien Quercia. A great start for a player that only scored four goals in Ligue 1 last year for Auxerre.
It would not be surprising to see Kombouare give the man on the opposite side some phone calls this week. Christian Gourcuff had his side playing some excellent one-touch passing football, the sort of football Leonardo and QSI will expect from PSG in the coming week. Jouffre was excellent, constantly rampaging down the wing, involved with most of Lorient’s good work and he also managed to get a few shots off.
Only one PSG player made more passes than Lorient’s Arnold Mvuemba (62). All the pre-season talks surrounded on the future of midfielder Clement Chantome. One of PSG’s best players last year, fans were praying that his playing time wouldn’t be limited with all the new signings and his performance showed why so many want him to play. Completing more passes (76) than anyone else, Chantome was easily on of the home sides best players.
Although Lorient may have lost Gameiro and Amalfitano in the summer, one player that they still have is central defender Bruno Ecuele Manga. Outstanding last year he started this season with one of his best performances. PSG controlled the game with 61% but they couldn’t breach a well-organised Lorient defence. Ecuele Manage recorded 5 tackles and 15 clearances which shows who busy the 23-year old was in keeping a clean sheet.
The critics will jump on the poor performance from the Parisians but most of the praise must go to Christian Gourcuff and his players for a fantastic and hardworking display. They stopped PSG playing there game; no one in the PSG side had more than one successful dribble. And with a team containing Nene and Jeremy Menez that is a very telling statistic.
As much as Lorient’s tactics were perfect, PSG’s didn’t work. Nene and Menez too often came inside and took away any width the home side had. Saka Tiene and Christophe Jallet didn’t use this space enough and PSG were limited to playing everything in front of the Lorient defence. Guillaume Hoarau spent too much of the game dropping deep into the midfield, his poor performance (5.7) was noticed by Kombouare and Mathieu Bodmer took his place early in the second half. Although the change made no difference to their play.
During the whole match PSG failed to create a shot inside Lorient’s 6 yard box. An incredible 78% of their efforts coming from outside the opposition area. Lorient on the other hand managed 43% of their shots from inside the PSG area.
It will take time for all of PSG’s new pieces to come together into a cohesive unit but the fact that the trio of Kevin Gameiro, Hoarau or Mevlut Erdinc couldn’t manage at least one shot on target must give Kombouare some cause for concern.
