Igor Jesus’ thirty sixth minute objective was sufficient for Botafago to defeat the Europeans champions PSG on the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles.
Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) suffered a shock 1-0 Membership World Cup defeat towards Brazilian aspect Botafogo in a hard-fought battle between the reigning champions of Europe and South America.
A primary-half objective from Brazilian worldwide Igor Jesus proved the distinction on Thursday as Botafogo all however sealed a spot within the knockout rounds in entrance of a 53,699 crowd on the Pasadena Rose Bowl.
French champions PSG are extensively thought to be one of many favourites for FIFA’s 32-team match after a stunning season which culminated with a scintillating 5-0 demolition of Inter Milan within the UEFA Champions League remaining final month.
However their hopes of securing a victory, which might have seen them change into the primary aspect to succeed in the final 16, have been stymied by a resilient efficiency from their opponents from Rio de Janeiro.
“Lots of people questioned, however we confirmed how sturdy Botafogo is,” objective scorer Jesus mentioned after the win. “It was a troublesome sport, and we needed to defend effectively, and we did our job and scored a objective.
“We’re actually blissful – we knew how necessary this sport was. One crew was the champion of the Champions League, the opposite crew was the champion of South America,” added Jesus, who had been strongly linked with a transfer to English Premier League aspect Nottingham Forest earlier this 12 months earlier than opting to stick with the Brazilians to play within the Membership World Cup.
“I believe I made the suitable selection to remain in Botafogo,” Jesus quipped.
Setback for PSG
PSG coach Luis Enrique mentioned his crew had anticipated a tricky battle.
“We knew it was going to be a really troublesome match – they defended very effectively,” the Spaniard mentioned.
“This Membership World Cup may be very intense and troublesome, and all of the groups are extremely motivated, particularly once they’re enjoying towards us.”
The PSG supervisor, although, was adamant that the European champions nonetheless had loads of time to resurrect their marketing campaign.
“If there’s a crew that may flip it round, it’s our crew,” he mentioned. “We’ve obtained to analyse this and there’s issues we will enhance. However I believe our efficiency was good.”
PSG picked up the place they’d left off in Sunday’s 4-0 Group B rout of Atletico Madrid, with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia testing Botafogo goalkeeper John with an early curling effort after simply two minutes.
However that early effort was as shut as PSG got here to scoring in a scrappy first half punctuated by a collection of niggling fouls that prevented the European champions from settling into their passing sport.
Botafogo’s midfield trio of Marlon Freitas, Gregore and Allan labored tirelessly to shut down Vitinha, denying the skilful PSG playmaker time and house to launch assaults regardless of dominating possession.
As an alternative, it was Botafogo who took the lead with a objective towards the run of play on 36 minutes.
Jefferson Savarino’s completely weighted via ball break up the PSG defence and despatched Jesus racing via on objective.
The Botafogo striker did brilliantly to wrongfoot the masking Willian Pacho earlier than sweeping a shot that took a slight deflection previous PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma on its means into the online.
PSG continued to dominate possession via the second half, and spent lengthy durations camped within the remaining third.
However Botafogo’s defence held agency and the consequence leaves the Brazilians firmly heading in the right direction for the final 16, with a remaining group sport towards Atletico Madrid to come back in Pasadena on Monday.
