Paris St-Germain made it five wins out of five in Ligue 1 this season as Ander Herrera’s double helped them to an emphatic home win over Clermont.
Often, this PSG squad has been accused of relying heavily on their biggest names to deliver results and silverware. But today, they proved that they are much more than that. The squad as a whole knew their roles and produced a confident team performance that Pochettino must have been proud to watch from the dugout.
PSG thrashed the newly promoted Clermont Foot 4-0 at Parc des Princes to extend their unbeaten run in Ligue 1. This was the first league meeting between these two sides, who last faced each other back in 1996, where Clermont came out on top in. . their Coupe de France clash.
Fast forward 25 years and PSG are now a very different outfit. And, despite having a host of their biggest names missing, including Lionel Messi and Neymar, they still managed to field a starting XI that many teams would dream of having.
It only took Mauricio Pochettino’s side 20 minutes to break the deadlock with Ander Herrera popping up in the box to head home after a low driven Achraf Hakimi cross was palmed away by Arthur Desmas into the path of the Spaniard.
The Parisian’s lead was then doubled by Herrera, who smashed the ball into the roof of the net after Kylian Mbappe’s cross was blocked and fell kindly to the midfielder.
Clermont came out in the second half and continued to try and go toe-to-toe with PSG, but were undone by a counter-attack. Mbappe found himself on the end of the long pass and had the composure to round Desmas, slotting the ball into the back of the empty net.
Mbappe was central to the fourth goal of the game as his shot was well saved by Desmas, but Idrissa Gueye was well placed to head the ball home.
This match proved that beating one of Europe’s best outfits was a step too far for the newly-promoted side, but they can take heart from the attacking play that their manager Pascal Gastien demanded from his team. If they can reproduce more performances like this then they will have a strong season in the top flight.