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UCL: Ousmane Dembélé’s Early Goal Lifts PSG to First Leg Win Over Arsenal
The Ligue 1 McDonald's side didn't waste time finding the back of the net as Ousmane Dembélé opened the scoring in the fourth minute.
Dembélé set up the play by sending the ball out left to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who drove into the Arsenal box and cut it back with the outside of his right foot to find Dembélé, whose shot bounced and went in off the post to give PSG a one-goal lead.
PSG took a one-goal lead into halftime, but coming out of the break, the Gunners leveled the scoring, or so they thought. Arsenal earned a free kick, with Declan Rice lining up to take it.
The ball curled in, and Mikel Merino scored with a header in the 47th minute. However, VAR reviewed the play for potential offside at the start of the free kick, and offside was confirmed as the score remained 1-0 in PSG's favor.
Arsenal recorded 10 total shots in the contest as they looked for the equalizer but Gianluigi Donnarumma played a significant role in PSG keeping a clean sheet. The Italian made five saves to keep the Gunners from finding the back of the net as the capital club are returning home with a one-goal lead.
Following the win, Vitinha spoke to Canal+ and stated that while the result is positive, there are still another 90 minutes to go in the matchup.
"It’s very difficult to come here and win, we saw that in October. We played a great match, even though we didn’t have the ball as usual. That’s what great teams show. You have to adapt. We could have scored more, but we’re happy with the result. We were confident we could pull off such a performance."
"There are people who don’t believe in us, but we don’t care. The supporters are incredible. We all came together. It’s not over, we need to play a great match at the Parc des Princes. No, it’s not a personal revenge. It’s the team. We made a great collective performance and showed our desire to reach the final."
The Stat: 11
After the goal against Arsenal, Dembélé joined Kylian Mbappé with 11 goal involvements in a single Champions League campaign for PSG, matching the record set by Mbappé in 2020-21. Karim Benzema, with 17 in 2021-22 and 12 in 2011-12, is the only French player to be directly involved in more Champions League goals in a single campaign.
Photo credit: @PSG_English
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