Only Luis Enrique would dare make a call like this. The Spanish coach sprang a resounding surprise on his Paris Saint-Germain line-up for the Champions League clash with Slovan Bratislava, benching four of the team’s biggest stars in one go. Some called it a gamble. Others saw it as sheer confidence.<\/p>\n
Revolution in the European champions’ line-up<\/p>\n
The official team sheet from the Parisian club was full of surprises, with Enrique naming a starting eleven that bore little resemblance to expectations.<\/p>\n
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Dou\u00e9, captain Marquinhos and Jo\u00e3o Neves all began the match on the bench. The decision stunned supporters, with young and unfamiliar names handed the nod instead.<\/p>\n
Ferran Torres got the chance to lead the line alongside Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9. Dro Fern\u00e1ndez, the young talent in attacking midfield, also came in, as did new arrival Illia Zabarnyi at the heart of defence.<\/p>\n
Paris Saint-Germain’s official line-up was as follows:<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper: Matvey Safonov.<\/p>\n
Defence: Nuno Mendes – Willian Pacho – Illia Zabarnyi – Achraf Hakimi.<\/p>\n
Midfield: Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz – Vitinha – Dro Fern\u00e1ndez – Magnes Akliouche.<\/p>\n
Attack: Ferran Torres – Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Kvara and Dou\u00e9 led a battalion of stars down among the substitutes. It was a clear message from Enrique about rotating his squad and giving everyone a chance at the start of his Champions League league phase campaign.<\/p>\n
You can discuss the topics and news in more depth in the “Kooora” forums<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only Luis Enrique would dare make a call like this. The Spanish coach sprang a resounding surprise on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[515,728,30,333,46474,45075],"class_list":["post-76749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-champions-league","tag-luis-enrique","tag-paris","tag-paris-saint-germain","tag-paris-saint-germain-vs-slovan-bratislava","tag-slovan-bratislava"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}