PSG overwhelms Wolfsburg 2-0

By: j | February 18th, 2009

As expected, Paul Le Guen made a number of changes to his normal starting eleven with Claude Makélélé, Ludovic Giuly, Stéphane Sessegnon, Mickaël Landreau, Ceará and Jérémy Clément either given the evening off or on the bench. However in their place was a voracious group including nineteen year old Tripy Makonda who completely dominated VfL Wolfsburg in route to a 2-0 victory in UEFA Cup action.

Tactically the Parisians overwhelmed Wolfsburg with superiour midfield play and while cautious in the attack, they slowly worked out of their cocoon. Nine minutes before the break, PSG blossomed with Jérôme Rothen’s cross to Guillaume Hoarau narrowly missing the mark. Four minutes later Parc des Princes rose to its feet with Clément Chantôme’s flourishing run and cross to Fabrice Pancrate being saved by the Wolfsburg ‘keeper Diego Benaglio to keep the match deadlocked at the half.

After the break the Parisians continued with an attacking pulse with Clément Chantôme and Guillaume Hoarau threatening early but still there was no score. Searching for inspiration, Paul Le Guen called upon Stéphane Sessegnon and provided eighteen year-old Maxime Partouche his European debut at the seventy first minute. Finally with eleven minutes remaining Jérôme Rothen free-kick was nodded into the back of the net Guillaume Hoarau to give les Rouge et Bleu the 1-0 lead. A few minutes later he scored his second of the day as he rose high to head in Clément Chantôme’s corner to double the margin. Searching for this third of the evening he struck the post with a clever short however the match concluded without a further score and a dominating 2-0 victory by PSG.

In attendance, President Nicolas Sarkozy put it perfectly saying of les Rouge et Bleu triumphant play:

“It was a great game and a good performance from the PSG side. They scored twice and could even have added a third. PSG are second in the league, the results in Europe are good – what more could you ask for? It’s a great way to end the day.”