Chapter 992: The Attack
On the evening of August 11, the Parc des Princes in Paris.
The stands were packed, and Paris Saint-Germain fans rushed into the home stadium to cheer for the first game of the new season.
In this game, Gao Han still arranged a 4-3-3 formation, with Courtois as the goalkeeper, Marcelo, Thiago Silva, David Luiz and Azpilicueta as the back line, Pirlo as the midfielder, Di Maria and Yaya Toure in the middle, and Neymar, Suarez and Aubameyang as the front trident.
After spending more than 100 million euros this summer, Paris Saint-Germain is now full of talents.
But the first team to break the goal on the field was Lorient.
Only seven minutes into the game, Traore's assist from the midfield wing helped Corneille to score, opening the record for Lorient away from home and scoring the first goal of the season.
This goal also made the players and fans of Paris Saint-Germain a little confused. They didn't expect that the opponent would score first in the first seven minutes of the new season. This is undoubtedly a tragic result.
But Pirlo and Yaya Toure of the home team are all famous European players with rich experience. With Gao Han's reminder on the sidelines, they quickly stabilized their position, firmly controlled the ball on the field, and organized a counterattack.
Only four minutes after losing the ball, Paris Saint-Germain counterattacked successfully.
After Pirlo dribbled the ball forward, he made a clever diagonal pass and accurately found Aubameyang behind the defense line. The latter took advantage of the situation to enter the penalty area and directly pushed the ball into the goal, scoring a goal to tie the score for Paris Saint-Germain.
This is also the first goal of the new season.
Three minutes later, Marcelo joined the attack from the back row. After continuously cooperating with Di Maria and Neymar, he passed the ball low into the penalty area. Neymar stopped the ball and turned to shoot. The ball hit the far corner and surpassed the score.
After scoring consecutive goals, Paris Saint-Germain firmly controlled the situation on the field, using their skillful ball control and superior strength to steadily suppress the opponent.
Lorient played more and more anxiously, and the central defender Lelan committed two consecutive fouls in less than five minutes. He was shown two yellow cards by the referee and was sent off with a red card.
With one more player than the opponent, Paris Saint-Germain played more calmly. Before the end of the first half, Di Maria intercepted the ball in the middle and decisively launched a counterattack, and sent the ball to Suarez's feet in the penalty area.
But the Uruguayan striker failed to adjust the opportunity himself and could only pass it back. Yaya Toure followed up with a long shot, which penetrated the Lorient team and expanded the score to 3-1.
After the second half, Lorient replaced three players at once, but still couldn't withstand the bombardment of Paris Saint-Germain. First, Neymar assisted Suarez to score, then Yaya Toure assisted Neymar to score twice, and finally Aubameyang on the right wing contributed an assist, allowing Suarez to score again.
Especially after leading 5-1, Lorient player Sunu, who came on as a substitute in the second half, was sent off again for his uncalm behavior, which directly led to Lorient only having nine players on the field in the end, which can be said to have lost both the ball and the people.
In the end, Paris Saint-Germain won Lorient 6-1 at home and won the first victory of the new season.
With the big win in the first round, Paris Saint-Germain rushed directly to the position of the league leader.
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The 6-1 home win in the first round boosted the morale of Paris Saint-Germain.
In particular, the two new players Di Maria and Aubameyang have shown strong strength, which makes the fans of Paris Saint-Germain very excited. They all said that the team should continue to work hard in the new season and strive to achieve something in the European arena.
French media unanimously stated that Paris Saint-Germain's performance on the court is more dominant and more offensive than last season, and the team's offensive rhythm has obviously become faster, like a storm, which is unstoppable.
A week later, Paris Saint-Germain challenged Ajaccio away.
Just two minutes into the game, Neymar took the ball on the left, used his personal ability to get rid of the defender, and assisted Aubameyang to score a goal. Then in the 17th minute, Yaya Toure scored another goal for the team.
After leading by two goals, Paris Saint-Germain played more calmly.
After the second half, Suarez and Yaya Toure scored goals successively, and finally helped the team beat Ajaccio 4-0 and completed two consecutive victories.
In the third round of Ligue 1, Paris Saint-Germain returned to the Parc des Princes and welcomed the French Ligue 1 powerhouse Bordeaux.
It was still the iconic opening attack. In just six minutes, Neymar scored the first goal for Paris Saint-Germain. Then in the 17th minute, Neymar scored again and scored twice.
In the 30th minute, Suarez scored again, expanding the score to 3-0.
After the second half, Paris Saint-Germain relaxed for a while and the opponent scored a goal, but soon regained control of the situation on the field. It was not until the 65th minute that Aubameyang received an assist from Yaya Toure and scored another goal, expanding the score to 4-1, and this score was finally maintained until the end of the game.
With three consecutive rounds of big wins, Paris Saint-Germain can be said to be on the offensive in the new season.
But in the fourth round of the league, when Paris Saint-Germain challenged Lille away and Gao Han was saving his strength for the upcoming European Super Cup, everyone thought that Paris Saint-Germain would face challenges, but unexpectedly, Drogba, who started for the first time this season, received an assist from Di Maria's left cross and scored with a header just one minute after the start.
Then in the twelfth minute, Drogba assisted David Luiz to score.
In the 21st minute, with the assist of Pastore, Drogba scored again, and finally helped the team beat Lille 3-0 away, winning four consecutive victories at the beginning of the new season.
Scoring 17 goals and conceding two goals in four rounds of the league, this shocking report card amazed the entire French Ligue 1, and the French media exclaimed that Paris Saint-Germain had locked the league championship in advance since the beginning of the season.
The record of four consecutive victories has allowed Paris Saint-Germain to stay at the top of the standings, and also allowed Gao Han's team to face the European Super Cup against Manchester United with a more relaxed and confident attitude.
What makes French fans even more excited is that in the first four league games of the new season, Gao Han arranged for young players in the team to play. Mamadou Sakho, Aurier, Kurzawa and Lucas Moura all got the chance to play frequently, especially in the match against Lille. In the 65th minute, Gao Han arranged for young player Rabiot to replace Pirlo.
The 17-year-old young player played in the deep midfield position. With the support of his teammates in the frontcourt, he performed well. He did not leave a highlight performance, but he did not make any mistakes. After the game, he was praised by Gao Han.
"Many people are curious about why we let Kante transfer, but in fact, this is a decision made jointly by the club management. I noticed Rabiot in the youth training camp last season, and I realized that he would be a very good midfielder. His performance in the youth team left us with an extremely deep impression."
"We have to make a trade-off. There are so many games and so many opportunities to play. We need to make some choices. So the management finally decided to let Kante leave the team because we have to be responsible for him. We believe that he can get better development and more game opportunities after leaving."
"As for the future, we will provide more opportunities for young players like Rabiot in the team. We believe that after more games, with the help of superstar players such as Pirlo and Yaya Toure, they can grow up quickly and they will become the future of Paris Saint-Germain."
No one doubts Gao Han's ability to train young players, and Gao Han's evaluation of Rabiot also makes the French media and fans excited, because they vaguely perceive that this will be a rising local midfield star, and more importantly, he is a youth training of Paris Saint-Germain.
In the world of football, home-grown players are always more popular than players bought in.
With Rabiot's appearance and Gao Han's explanation, everyone expressed their understanding of Kante's departure. After all, even if Kante stayed in the team, it would be difficult for him to find a place in Paris Saint-Germain with his style.
What's more, Paris Saint-Germain also has Matuidi.
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The reason why N'Golo Kante's departure made Paris Saint-Germain fans feel sorry is mainly because the French midfielder performed too well in the first round of the new La Liga season, when Chinatown challenged Barcelona away.
Since Chinatown is fourth in the league and must participate in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, and has met Barcelona in the first round of two consecutive seasons, Pochettino had to arrange Kante, who has stronger defensive ability, to start in the away game at Camp Nou, leaving Illarramendi for the Champions League qualifiers in the middle of the week.
But the result was unexpected, Kante's performance at Camp Nou surprised everyone.
At the beginning of the game, Barcelona took advantage of the fact that Chinatown was not yet stable, and Otamendi took the lead with a corner kick.
But Chinatown quickly equalized the score in the ninth minute with Hazard assisting Rakitic.
After that, the two sides started a fierce competition. Kante fully played his characteristics in the midfield. He ran all over the field everywhere, and his decisive and calm interceptions made him an unbreakable barrier in the backcourt of Chinatown.
The first game of this French midfielder was at the Camp Nou, in front of fans all over the world, making everyone remember his name.
The game was eventually lost. Messi's goal in the 84th minute helped Barcelona beat Chinatown 2-1, but it was only a narrow victory, and Kante became the most eye-catching player in the whole game, even surpassing all Barcelona superstars and Hazard in Chinatown.
After playing Barcelona, Chinatown defeated Panathinaikos 2-0 at home. Illarramendi, who was under competitive pressure, also performed well in this game.
In the second round of La Liga, Chinatown defeated Celta Vigo 2-0 at home. Kante started again and performed well again. The midfield, which started with Isco and Verratti, helped Chinatown take 67% of the ball possession rate and created 26 shots, winning applause from the audience.
But in the away game in Greece in the middle of the week, the two sides fought hard for 90 minutes, but in the end, neither scored a goal.
With two goals in the first round, Chinatown defeated Panathinaikos 2-0 and advanced to the Champions League group stage again.
In the third round of La Liga, Chinatown challenged Real Mallorca away.
After 90 minutes of hard fighting, Pochettino's team finally won Real Mallorca 1-0 away with Hazard's lore goal in the 75th minute, ushering in two consecutive victories.
With two wins and one loss, Chinatown got six points in the first three rounds and ranked sixth in La Liga.
Barcelona led with three consecutive wins, followed by Atletico Madrid with two wins and one draw, and Real Madrid ranked tenth with one win, one draw and one loss. Mourinho's team can be said to have a bad start.