(Adam Davy – PA Images via Getty Images)
Paris Saint-Germain topped Arsenal 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal with a goal that epitomized the “new PSG.”
It came in less than four minutes on Tuesday night at the Emirates Stadium in London. Ousmane Dembélé scored it — and also started it, when he received the 24th pass of an extended possession, the type of coordinated team move that has powered PSG toward the top of European soccer.
A year ago, they were still “old PSG,” an ill-disciplined, star-driven outfit largely viewed through the lens of one man: Kylian Mbappé.
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Now, with the French star gone, they are on the doorstep of a Champions League final. They’ll carry a one-goal advantage back home, and into next Wednesday’s second leg in Paris.
They were deserving winners Tuesday, mostly on the basis of a brilliant first 30 minutes. And they burst into life after just three minutes, when Dembélé, a wasteful winger reborn as a lethal striker, got lost in the pocket of space between Arsenal’s midfielders and defenders.
For much of the move, he was drifting. He dropped from his No. 9 position into midfield:
Ousmane Dembélé, circled, moments before his goal. (Screenshot: CBS Sports | Illustration: Henry Bushnell/Yahoo Sports)
Then, he snuck into his happy place, just off the shoulder of Arsenal’s defensive midfielders, and out of their sightlines.
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Dembélé stayed there, discreetly, as Arsenal’s Declan Rice sprinted after PSG’s Fabián Ruiz, and Mikel Merino followed Vitinha, trying to shut off service to PSG’s midfield creators. That left Dembélé, a versatile forward, all alone in the center circle, with a swath of green grass to run into when Nuno Mendes found him with a superb line-breaking pass.
(Original video: CBS Sports | Illustrations: Henry Bushnell/Yahoo Sports)
Dembélé then galloped into the space, gliding with the ball as only he can. He sprayed it wide to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Kvaratskhelia drew the attention of 60,000 Londoners, Arsenal defenders included, then poked a return pass to Dembélé, whose scruffy shot pinged in off the far post.
And just like that, PSG had a lead that it never relinquished.
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By the end of the first half, Arsenal had settled into the game. Both teams created fair shares of chances. Both forced the two goalkeepers, Arsenal’s David Raya and PSG’s Gianluigi Donnarumma, to make fantastic saves. PSG’s Gonçalo Ramos rattled the crossbar.
But neither found another goal.
Arsenal did find the back of the net, but Merino’s early-second-half header was disallowed after a VAR review revealed he was offside.
And the first leg of the first semifinal yielded an undeniable leader: PSG.
The second semifinal, between Barcelona and Inter Milan, begins Wednesday (3 p.m. ET, CBS).
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Here’s how the match unfolded in real time:
