Luis Enrique, coach of Paris Saint-Germain, said his team didn’t deserve to win the UEFA Super Cup after they came back furiously late to beat Tottenham Hotspur in a penalty shootout on Wednesday. Nuno capping off a PSG comeback that looked improbable when Tottenham was leading 2-0 in the 85th minute of regular time during this yearly meeting between the most recent Champions League and Europa League winners, Mendes skillfully converted the crucial penalty in the shootout.
Luis Enrique pointed out that the two teams’ different degrees of fitness were clear, as his team had only just started training after their PSG’s UEFA Super Cup win trip to the Club World Cup final last month. “For 80 minutes, we didn’t deserve that, I think Tottenham deserved to win the match because they were in form, they were training for six weeks, and they played a great match,” Luis Enrique commented to TNT Sports.
He further added, “We have been training only for six days, but sometimes football is unfair. I have to say we were very lucky in the last 10 minutes that we could score two goals.”
With a strong shot into the bottom corner, Lee Kang-in rekindled PSG’s expectations and fellow replacement Gonçalo Ramos scored an equalizer in the fourth minute of stoppage time, tying the score at 2-2 at Stadio Friuli in Udine. Still, Tottenham seemed set to surprise by scoring a 2-0 advantage in the shootout following Vitinha’s first miss for PSG. Micky van de Ven and Mathys Tel, however, both failed to convert their penalties for Spurs, while PSG successfully landed four straight penalties, with Mendes powerfully striking the final one.
For goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier, who recently moved from Lille and has now assumed PSG’s first-choice role from Gianluigi Donnarumma, considered by many to be the best goalie in the world, it was a rather remarkable first appearance.
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