Despite seeing his side lose the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round-of-16 clash to Real Madrid 3-1, Paris Saint-Germain boss Unai Emery was in a defiant mood as he challenged his players to overturn the deficit and qualify in front of their home fans in the return leg.
“I’m happy with the way the team played. We had the game under control, and we stayed true to our principles,” Emery stated at his post-match press conference in Madrid.
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PSG took the lead via Adrien Rabiot in the 34th minute, but a Giovani Lo Celso’s penalty-box foul on Toni Kroos in the closing stages of the first-half gave Cristiano Ronaldo the chance to equalise and Real Madrid’s talisman cooly dispatched his spot-kick seconds before the interval.
“Our opponents were strong, especially on the counter. I think overall we dominated the game, we could have scored again to go ahead once more, especially if we had had some more favourable decisions.”
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While the match was evenly poised at half-time, Real accelerated late in the second-half as the introduction of Marco Asensio allowed Ronaldo and fullback Marcelo to score crucial strikes to give the holders a two-goal advantage.
“We’re going to play the return leg at home, put them under a lot of pressure, and we’ll do everything to qualify in front of our fans,” the Spanish tactician emphatically stated as he brought his presser to a close.
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The second leg at the Parc des Princes takes place on March 6 and the fact that Les Parisiens scored an away goal will give them hope that all is not yet over in the tie.
Considering Barcelona overturned a 4-0 deficit against them last year, the big-spending French outfit will try to take a leaf out of the Catalans’ book when they meet their arch-rivals next month.