Paris Saint-Germain began their campaign for a third straight Champions League title with a dominant 6-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava at the Parc des Princes. The French giants are aiming to replicate the historic feat of the 2016-2018 Real Madrid side, becoming only the second team in the modern era to secure three consecutive trophies in Europe’s elite club competition.
The visitors’ resistance held for 17 minutes before Nuno Mendes struck a powerful effort against the post, with the rebound falling kindly for Ousmane Dembele to open the scoring. Shortly after, a deflected shot from young midfielder Dro Fernandez provided an assist for Dembele, who headed home his second of the match to double the lead.
Dembele, a frontrunner for this year’s Ballon d’Or, leads a squad where nine of his teammates are also among the 30 nominees for the award, which will be presented in London next month. One of those contenders, Ferran Torres, further cemented his status by converting a precise Dembele cross in the 31st minute to make it 3-0.
Torres, who joined from Barcelona during the close season, proved his worth throughout the night. He secured his hat-trick shortly after the interval, first firing home from the edge of the area following a surging run by new signing Maghnes Akliouche. He later completed his treble by guiding a Dembele corner into the net with his knee, following an earlier effort from Nuno Mendes that was ruled out for offside.
While the match served as a routine warm-up for Luis Enrique’s squad ahead of challenging upcoming fixtures against Manchester City and Barcelona, Slovan Bratislava managed a consolation goal through Gambian winger Suleiman Camara. The Slovakian side, now coached by Yaya Toure—the first African manager to lead a team in this competition—ultimately fell to a 6-1 defeat after Fabian Ruiz prodded in a loose ball late in the game.
Torres’s performance was particularly notable given his role as a World Cup final hero, having scored the decisive goal for Spain against Argentina in July. For Slovan Bratislava, the result marks a difficult start to their league phase, as they look to improve upon their previous appearance two years ago, where they failed to secure a single point across eight matches. The report also notes that and this was really just a warm-up for Luis Enrique’s team ahead of much tougher tests to come in the league phase, anything other than a comfortable PSG victory would have been an enormous surprise given the gulf in resources between these clubs. The report also notes that real, Ajax and Bayern Munich were the only teams to achieve that feat in the days of the old European Cup. The report also notes that with PSG going in front after Nuno Mendes crashed a magnificent shot off a post from outside the box, his team’s resistance lasted only 17 minutes. The report also notes that it was 2-0 not long after as a shot by young Spanish midfielder Dro Fernandez took a deflection and turned into the perfect assist for Dembele to head in. The report also notes that and then returned the favour by playing the ball across the face of goal to give the France forward a chance for his hat-trick, the ex-Barcelona striker converted an inviting Dembele cross to make it 3-0 on 31 minutes. The report also notes that however, Dembele’s effort was turned onto the underside of the bar by goalkeeper Dominik Takac.
