Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappé’s second half goals at Old Trafford helped Paris Saint-Germain beat Manchester United 2-0 in the first leg of the Champions League last 16 tie on Tuesday.
Today’s edition of French newspaper L’Equipe has player ratings for both teams and we focus on those given to the Red Devils for their overall performance against the Ligue 1 winners.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer went with his preferred line up that includes a front three of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard and the latter two were taken off the pitch after the first half due to injuries.
It’s claimed that Martial had a ‘frustrating’ evening because he was successful in beating PSG’s Thilo Kehrer only once, which is why he is rated 4/10.
Juan Mata replaced Martial and the Spaniard’s have been given a rating of 4 because he brought ‘technical quality’ and a ‘little subtlety’, but without any attackers to do the damage to PSG.
Lingard is given a rating of 3, with L’Equipe claiming they didn’t see the England international doing anything other than defensive duties. He loves space and movement and was not provided an opportunity for either by PSG.
Alexis Sanchez replaced Lingard and the Chilean rated 3/10 because he ‘wandered like a soul in pain’ without taking any initiative.
Rashford rated 5 as he was the only one who gave some trouble to Gianluigi Buffon, while he also put pressure on the opposition defenders. He worked a lot for the team, but the result was not pleasing.
Paul Pogba – a nightmare, claims L’Equipe, who rate the sent off midfielder 3/10. Thomas Tuchel gave Marquinhos the task to man mark Pogba and he did it so well the former Juventus star was ‘non-existent’ in the game.
His midfield partners Nemanja Matic and Ander Herrera are also rated 3. The former Chelsea man was impressive in the first half, but he made wrong choices and his failure to mark Kimpembe allowed the defender to open the scoring for the visitors.
Herrera ran to places where there was space, but he failed to connect with United attackers.
Victor Lindelof was given a rating of 3 as he struggled to showcase his ball playing abilities and the Swede gave an impression that he was struggling.
Luke Shaw and Eric Bailly have been rated 4/10. Shaw was ‘discreet’ on the defensive work and he impressed while joining Martial when going forward. It wasn’t the case in the second half for the left-back and in the end, he was not decisive enough.
Bailly was good in the first half, but struggled to cope with Mbappe’s pace that allowed the latter to score PSG’s second goal of the match.
David de Gea’s been rated 5 because he was hardly troubled in the first half and couldn’t have done much for the two goals he conceded. He did make three saves.
Ashley Young was the star man for Manchester United, which is why they have rated him 6. Offensively, he combined well with Lingard and Rashford in the first half. He was booked for the tackle on Mbappe.
L’Equipe are not letting Young’s shoulder push to Angel Di Maria go, and claim he should have been sent off because they believe it was worth a second yellow.
Solskjaer is given a rating of 4 for starting a predicted lineup and the changes were not surprising, United’s overall rating is 3.8.
Referee Daniele Orsato has been rated 7 because the Italian official did a ‘pretty good job of holding the match by quickly putting out the warnings’.
