END OF THE
IT would be easy to label this a brutal reality check, to call it out as an audition quite comprehensively failed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The biggest test of his short career as Manchester United manager emphatically flunked.
It would be easy to say this is why United need a coach with continental pedigree, to say this was a clinical reminder of Solskjaer’s greenness, his naivety.
It would be easy to say this why he should not get the job. But forget all that. For now, at least.
Because this was simply about the destructive pace and talent of the world’s finest young player.
This was about Kylian Mbappe’s jet-heeled brilliance, and his ability strike fear into an entire team.
Even before he sprinted past Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly, like Frankel taking on a pair of shire horses, and tucked away Angel Di Maria’s smart assist, he had United defenders nervously sucking in oxygen. Never mind the absence of Neymar and Edinson Cavani, when your team has an out-ball to Mbappe at their disposal, they possess a clear and present danger.
With United needing goals in Paris, if Mbappe stays fit, this tie is as good as over.
United’s performance was not disastrous, not at all. Defensively suspect, sure, but injuries certainly did not help.
Until they lost Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial – the former seconds before half-time, the latter at the break – they pretty much held their own.
But gradually PSG began to take control and when Mbappe’s switch was flicked, danger was a frequent visitor to David De Gea. If Lindelof and Ashley Young were somehow unaware of the extent of Mbappe’s pace, they are not now.
Yet United, with Young lucky not to see a second yellow, got to halftime Kimpembe 53, Mbappe 60 unscathed. Well, not quite unscathed, as those injuries struck both Lingard and Martial.
And the disruption merely seemed to bolster increasing PSG superiority. The pressing eased and Paris flourished, edging ahead when Presnel Kimpembe blindsided Nemanja Matic and arrived to volley in a Di Maria corner. It was hardly the finest ice of setpiece defending and not only Matic was culpable.
De Gea might have thought about coming off his line, Paul Pogba mistimed his leaping attempt at interception.
But it was a fine delivery from Di Maria, who – as well as being barrelled down a hill by Young – had an unfriendly welcome from his former fans.
He certainly enjoyed celebrating Kimpembe’s nicely-controlled volleyed finish, but not as much as he revelled in the pass into Mbappe’s path that pretty much set one
French foot into the quarter-final stages.
This PSG team grew in confidence and there was class outside of Mbappe, particularly from Di Maria and a very impressive Julian Draxler.
They are a very, very accomplished team and it will certainly have to be a Herculean effort by United if they are to extend their Champions League involvement beyond one more match.
Especially as Pogba will miss it after being dismissed for an second yellow in the closing stages.
Never mind the implications of this match, if
Solskjaer can pull it off in Paris, he will be able to write his own contract.