Zlatan Ibrahimovic (10) celebrates with his Paris Saint-Germain teammates after scoring the second goal of Wednesday night’s International Champions Match against Manchester United. Stephanie Sokol/The Pit
[dropcap]D[/dropcap]espite a sea of red in the stands at Soldier Field in support of Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain took the match – and the International Champions Cup tournament – with help from Blaise Matuidi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The first goal came in the 25th minute when Lucas Moura fed the ball to Matuidi. Despite pressure from Manchester United defenders and the presence of goalkeeper David De Gea, Matuidi managed to slip the ball past and watched as it drifted slowly into the bottom left corner of the net.
Nine minutes later, Ibrahimovic struck again for Paris, this time on a wide open shot set up by Maxwell inside the box.
Paris finished the remainder of the match unscathed, 2-0. And despite there being two matches left in the North American tournament for the ICC, Paris has already won the cup with 13 points.
“We’re happy to play in the tournament. This is an amazing stadium,” Paris manager Laurent Blanc said during the post-match press conference. “There’s a huge quality of all the teams that have played in this tournament and the match was amazing. But you can’t forget we have an official match to win in a few days in Montreal.”
Manchester United came out of the gate early, dominating in the opposite end but failing to convert on the targets they had.
One such instance came in the 16th minute, when Wayne Rooney fed the ball to Memphis Depay, who then took a shot that went just right of the goal. In the 29th minute, Rooney took a shot of his own that went just high over the bar.
Much of the early moments of the game were spent in the Paris zone but it was Paris that dominated possession in the first half, holding the ball 52.9-percent. Paris Saint-Germain seemed to fend off Man U defenders by slipping the ball back up the field and feeding it back in.
“It wasn’t something we thought about before we came here, [we thought] to play our own game,” Blanc said. “Manchester United many times tried to push the ball forward on the field and did well in the first half but it was more equal footing in the second half.”
“It is more the performance than the result,” Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal said of his side’s performance. “I was really satisfied. It’s better when you win, of course. After 10 minutes, the score could have been 0-2 had we scored the first goal.”
Van Gaal added that in his experience, the side that scores the first goal has a great possibility to win the first game.
The International Champions Cup – presented by Guinness – is a preseason tournament played at varying venues across the United States. For the European clubs that participate, it is a good chance to not only expand into the US market but also work out kinks before the start of their respective seasons.
Paris Saint-Germain will play Lyon in Montreal on August 1 while Man U opens the Barclay’s Premier League against Tottenham August 8.
