Fresh off the Paris Olympics and we’re back with more SPORTS!
Today we’re headed to Parc des Princes to see the biggest football (soccer) club in France play: Paris Saint-Germain, a.k.a. PSG!
It was not long ago that Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe were the front line of this club. It was not the magic combination that the fans were hoping for… but it sill blows my mind that these 3 were on the same team so recently. Well, I’m sorry to say that none of them are here anymore. Neymar went off to Saudi, Messi moved to MLS, and Mbappe finally fulfilled his destiny of moving to Real Madrid. That brings us to this season, which is the beginning of a new era at PSG. There will still be some big names on the pitch tonight… but not as big as years past.
And tonight is not a regular season match! No; this is UEFA Champions League (UCL). If you are not familiar, UCL is where to top placing teams from the domestic leagues all around Europe play against each other. So, for example, Arsenal plays in the English Premiere League, while Juventus plays in Italian Serie A. These are two famous clubs that would never play against each other during regular season play. The only place where you see international cross-over is UCL, and that is why it’s one of the coolest things in sports! Only the best teams from each domestic league will qualify, and the exact number of teams that make it into UCL from each domestic league depends on how good that league is. So, for example, in Ligue 1 (France) the top 3 teams qualify for the next season of UCL, where as La Liga (Spain) it’s the top 4 teams. This is because La Liga is more competitive than Ligue 1. How “competitiveness” is measured is subject to some controversy… but that’s the gist of it.
So this is a Champions League match, and PSG are up against the Spanish side Girona, who came out of nowhere to finish 3rd in their 2023/2024 campaign, behind only Barça and Real Madrid. Let’s do this!
Arriving @Parc des Princes
Getting to Parc des Princes was much easier than I expected! Getting into Premier League games is often quite stressful, but the crowds waiting outside the stadium never got too dense or unruly. We found our way in with relative ease. And unlike the London clubs where they shut down all of the nearest tube stations at the end of games, or Napoli where we were forced to walk for hours after we left, it was very easy to get into and out of this area using public transportation. Really this was just a dream to get into and out of! 10/10. Would come here again!
We found our way up to the nose-bleeds where our cheap tickets were located. The incline going up these bleachers was STEEP. It definitely makes for pretty good views, even from this far away vantage point. However, the overhang was a bit of a bummer. We could see the field clearly and comfortably… but it sort of doesn’t seem like it from the pictures.
Before the game started, the Champions League choir song played and the lights went dim. The light show got the crowd hyped up for the start of the match. Underneath each seat was a big card made of laminated paper. When directed, we held them above our heads and… I assume some sort of image was formed. 😂
We actually did something similar when we saw Fulham v. Liverpool in the EFL Cup. It was fun!
As soon as the cards had served their purpose, everybody crumpled them up and threw them forward, onto the heads of people below them. It was really quite a sight to behold. Some people even folded them into giant paper airplanes and hurled them forward… definitely not me. I am far too mature for that kind of malarkey.
Inevitably, lots of these cards found their way onto the field, and I had a good laugh when an annoyed Achraf Hakimi picked one of them up and tried to hurl it off the field… only for a slight breeze to catch it and guide it right back to his feet.
Ok so let’s get into the game. Here’s the lineup, for those of you who can make sense of these sorts of graphics. In addition to Hakimi, some of the particularly notable players on this court—all of whom were on the PSG side of the pitch—included Ousmane Dembélé, Marquinhos, Warren Zaire-Emery, Fabián Ruiz, Randal Kolo Muani, and Marco Asensio, who actually sustained an injury during this match. Unfortunately, the Italy keeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, was injured, so he was out for this match.
To be perfectly honest with you, this was not the most exciting game I’ve ever seen. There were some exciting moments—like an almost-incredible back-heel kick from Randal Kolo Muani, an almost-goal from Warren Zaire-Emery, and break-away from Ousmane Dembélé that almost yielded something… but the game was dead-locked until the 90th minute, when PSG finally had a stroke up luck in the form of a fatal error on the part of the Girona keeper, Paulo Gazzaniga. It was an unlikely shot from the Portuguese defender Nuno Mendes that slipped through the keeper’s legs. It was actually counted as an OG (own goal) against the keeper, but if you ask me they should have given it to Mendes. He earned that goal fair and square. Here’s the highlights so you can decide for yourself whether Mendes was robbed here.
And now for a few pictures from the stands during the match.
Ignore the photo of the paper airplane in the gallery below. Idk whose that is.
There you have it! My first Champions League match. Hopefully there are many more to come. In my opinion, this is one of the coolest passports to cultural exchange out there. The beautiful game—football, soccer, calcio, whatever you want to call it—brings people together from across cultural and international lines like almost nothing else can. Even if you’re not a sports fan, if you like travel and are curious about the world around you, I think you should be able to find some beauty in this.
Up next, we’ll be back out on the streets of Paris for one of my favorite scavengers hunts… street art! Stay tuned.
