Luis Enrique Reacts To PSG’s Defeat To Lens In Trophée des Champions

The manager of Paris Saint-Germain, Luis Enrique, has stressed that his players deserved more after ten-man Lens stunned the UEFA Champions League winners in the Trophée des Champions on Sunday, August 16.

Lens’ new coach, Dino Toppmöller, led the team against PSG in front of their home fans at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis. Coach Luis Enrique and his boys were hunting for their second title in five days, but things didn’t go as planned.

Things turned around for Lens when Florian Thauvin scored the match opener and the game-winner in the 32nd minute. They almost suffered a huge setback when 18-year-old Kyllian Antonio was shown a red card in the 39th minute.

Enrique presented his best squad for the game. He made three changes to the team which won the UEFA Super Cup against Aston Villa, including giving Lucas Digne his second debut after the France left-back rejoined the club from Villa.

They dominated the match from the start of the first-half and had a series of goalscoring opportunities which they didn’t take advantage of. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia had one of the best chances of the game, which Lens goalkeeper Robin Risser comfortably stopped.

PSG substitute Mendes nearly scored an equaliser with a powerful, dipping long-range shot that narrowly missed over the bar.

Luis Enrique also introduced Fabian Ruiz and Ousmane Dembele from the bench, with Dembele forcing another straightforward save from Risser.

PSG were down to 10 men with three minutes remaining after Mendes received a straight red card for elbowing Lens wing-back Michal Skoras in the face off the ball.

After the match, Enrique said, “I think we deserved more. But I have to congratulate Lens; they won, and they played very well, with their usual intensity.

“We played a very good match, but we didn’t have the luck we needed.”