Shakhtar Donetsk 0-3 Paris Saint- Germain: Solid Parisian showing enough to see off sorry Shakhtar
Goals scored in the first half were enough to see
les Parisiens through in Ukraine, with the hosts
now bottom of Group A Paris Saint-Germain
earned a 3-0 win at Shakhtar Donetsk on
Wednesday to preserve their perfect start to the
Champions League.
Serge Aurier got himself on the end of Maxwell's
cross in the seventh minute to put Laurent Blanc's
side in the lead, before being key to his side's
second goal, flicking on a corner for David Luiz to
double their advantage.
PSG were almost made to pay for the
wastefulness of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Angel Di
Maria in the second half, with Alex Teixeira being
denied by both Kevin Trapp and the woodwork.
But they could not find a way through PSG's
back line and Ibrahimovic ensured the result by
forcing Darijo Srna into scoring an own-goal as
the match approached stoppage time.
The Ligue 1 champions maintain their unbeaten
start to the season in all competitions and keep
pace with Real Madrid at the top of Group A.
The visitors made an excellent start, Aurier
capitalising on poor defending from Taison to head
home at the back post from fellow full-back
Maxwell's floated cross.
Aurier should have had an assist to his name 10
minutes later, whipping in a delightful delivery
from the right, yet Ibrahimovic somehow headed
wide of an open goal.
PSG had a second soon after, although it came in
a fortunate manner, the ball looping in under the
bar off the thigh of Luiz after more poor marking
from Shakhtar.
Di Maria should have done better shortly before
the half-hour mark when, having beaten the
offside trap, his tame dink was parried wide by
Shakhtar stopper Andriy Pyatov.
For all PSG's domination, Shakhtar almost pulled
one back on the stroke of half-time, Oleksandr
Gladkiy twice missing from close range following
good play from Teixeira, before Marlos fired over.
Taison went close to atoning for his earlier lapse
in concentration five minutes after the restart, the
midfielder curling a drilled strike just wide of the
right-hand upright.
Marco Verratti, typically impressive in midfield,
looked destined to net his first goal of the
campaign with a sumptuous half-volley, but the
shot was well blocked by Olexandr Kucher.
Despite Di Maria's earlier chance, Shakhtar
continued to employ a high defensive line, and the
Argentina winger found himself through on goal
once again on the hour mark, but his chip landed
on the roof of the net.
Mircea Lucescu introduced Bernard in place of
Taison, and the diminutive playmaker soon made
an impact, finding Gladkiy with a wonderful cross,
but the forward was unable to direct his header on
target.
Trapp had to be alert to deny Teixeira, who was
then unfortunate not to snatch a deserved goal
with a superb effort from distance that clipped off
the top of the bar.
But PSG's victory was finally rounded off in the
final minute of normal time, Ibrahimovic ghosting
in behind Shakhtar's defence before his shot was
diverted into Shakhtar's net by Srna .
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