Key events
78 min: A hopeful Park cross drops in the PSG six-yard box. There is a brief panic from the visitors before the ball is cleared. Earps is furious with the officials, she is convinced that Park crossed the ball from behind the byline.
75 min: Two more changes for United, who bring both goalscorers off. Malard has had a great game, and not just for her brilliant solo goal, but has run herself into the ground and is also on a booking. On comes Terland.
PSG also make a double change: Rasheedat Ajibade and Jackie Groenen are replaced by Tante Diakite and Tara Elimbi Gilbert.
71 min: Chance for PSG! Groenen plays an inch-perfect pass to Isabela on the right wing and a dangerous cross to the back post finds Leuchter, but Le Tissier does well to come across and put the PSG striker off. A better connection there and PSG could have been level.
69 min: United make a straight swap: Ella Toone for the excellent Simi Awujo. Cheers for the England international as she enters the Old Trafford pitch.
67 min: PSG are going to have to roll the dice at some point. They have been really poor this second half.
65 min: Jess Park is running the show for United. She tries a shot, which is blocked, but collects the rebound, drops a shoulder and feeds Awujo, who forces a good save from Earps, diving to her right.
63 min: PSG do make a change: Echegini replaced by Merveille Kanjinga. Looks like Ajibade will switch to the left wing and Kanjinga will play on the right.
61 min: Good save from Earps to stop United scoring a third! Malard is in the mood and drives confidently into PSG’s box from the right wing, nearly bursting past Carmona. The Spaniard manages to get a toe on Malard’s shot, deflecting the ball towards Earps’ near post and the PSG keeper does brilliantly to adjust her body and tip United’s shot behind.
GOAL! Manchester United 2-1 PSG (Rolfo 59)
Another amazing goal, as United roar back into the lead! Park is the architect, finding space in midfield, feeding Sandberg on the left and the Swede crosses for her compatriot Rolfo, who nods a fine header into the top corner from eight yards out!
56 min: The game is missing the same tempo of the first half at present. PSG seem content to keep the ball in deep areas, and United seem content for them to have it. I wonder if we might see some subs soon.
54 min: A really odd free-kick for United. Firstly in the way that it was awarded: Park was clipped but only after playing a ball to the offside Malard. The referee awards the foul on Park, but surely it should be a free-kick to PSG?! Park played the offside pass before she was fouled?! In any case, Sandberg takes the set piece, floating a harmless cross straight into the hands of Earps in PSG’s goal. A bizarre passage of play.
50 min: Players who have been quiet and could do more. For United, Zigiotti Olme and Rolfo, who has won this competition twice with Barcelona. PSG will want to see more out of Groenen, Karchaoui and Leuchter, who is the leading scorer in the French top flight this season.
48 min: Awujo is quietly having an excellent game for United at the base of Skinner’s midfield. Leaving Ella Toone out was a big call by the Manchester United manager but Awujo’s energy and physicality has been vital for the hosts.
46 min: Just as they did in the first half, PSG come out of the blocks like a train and hit the post within the opening minutes of the half! A delicious flick from Leuchter finds Ebayilin in a pocket of space inside the United box and the PSG midfielder shoots fiercely, with Middleton-Patel tipping the ball onto the post and behind! Good football all around, with Ebayilin dismayed that she didn’t give PSG the lead!
Peeeeeeeeep!
And we’re off again in Manchester. A big 45 minutes ahead!
Half-time reading:
And here’s Suzanne Wrack’s match report on Arsenal’s shock loss at Bayern:
Half-time: Manchester United 1-1 PSG
Carmona’s goal is pretty much the last kick of the half! Manchester United concede their first goal of the Champions League.
GOAL! Manchester United 1-1 PSG (Carmona 45+2)
A worldie from Olga Carmona, who took aim from 30 yards out and put it right into the top corner! Not much Middleton-Patel could do about that! An absolutely outrageous strike from PSG’s World Cup winner!
45 min: Three minutes added on for stoppage time at the end of the first half.
44 min: PSG look dangerous from set pieces, but the ball again fails to fall to a white shirt from a corner.
42 min: Another dodgy moment for Middleton-Patel in the United goal, flapping at a cross from Ajibade and just about turning the ball over the bar, kissing the top of the crossbar before going out for a corner. You have to say that Middleton-Patel does still look rather nervy.
40 min: Have just looked up why Earps wears No 27, rather than No 1. It turns out that the keeper started wearing 27 when she first got her break at Wolfsburg.
Wolfsburg was such a life-changing year for me personally and professionally that I just feel like the number is symbolic to me, Earps once said in an interview. “I can’t see me ever changing the shirt back.”
38 min: PSG have probably been the better side here, but find themselves on course for a third straight defeat in the Champions League. A long way to go, though.
36 min: PSG come roaring back and after an excellent turn, touch and low cross from De Almeida, Le Tissier is very lucky not to turn the ball into her own net for an equaliser! The United captain stuck her foot out to clear the PSG cross, and ended up skewing it just over her own bar. From the resulting corner, more chaos as the ball pinballs around the United six-yard box with Sandberg eventually hacking it away.
34 min: It’s a good job that Malard did put that finish away, because after Malard’s excellent work to outmuscle Mbock, Rolfo was completely unmarked at the back post. Malard should really have squared it for an easy tap-in, but took on the more difficult shot and succeeded!
GOAL! Manchester United 1-0 PSG (Malard 32)
A sensational solo goal from United’s No 9! Riviere feeds a ball down the right channel, Malard shows pace to beat Mbock to the ball, then strength to ease the PSG defender away, before driving into the box and curling a sensational finish into the far corner with her weaker left foot! Earps had no chance, that was right inside the post!
29 min: Earps is getting more and more boos from the United crowd that used to sing her name. The PSG keeper looks like she is relishing the atmosphere, though.
27 min: Half chance for United’s Miyazawa! Riviere chips in a hopeful cross, Earps comes to punch (successfully) but the bouncing ball falls to Miyazawa on the edge of the area … Earps is still recovering her footing from punch … the goal is tantalisingly untended … but Miyazawa can only shoot high and wide. It was a tough chance in truth, the ball coming quickly and awkwardly towards the United midfielder.
25 min: Lovely bit of skill from Riviere beats Echegini out on United’s right. Knocked the ball one side, ran around the other. Clip that one up.
23 min: It’s PSG who are no in a mid-block as United press and probe with the ball. Neither goalkeeper has had a save to make, but PSG did hit the inside of the post, remember.
20 min: United are definitely growing into this. Miyazawa is beginning to control proceedings in midfield. Park is looking sharp out on that right wing.
17 min: Booking for Malard, who is penalised for crashing into De Almeida in an aerial duel. The reaction from the PSG defender suggests there was an elbow from Malard, but replays show that the United forward jumped fairly, but probably a little wildly, flattening De Almeida.
15 min: A first chance for United! George releases Rolfo down the left with the Swede cutting in nicely. Awujo breaks in the box – was she fouled there? Was that a penalty?! – before the ball breaks to Malard, then Park … but a courageous block from Carmona diverts United’s shot behind for a corner. The pass from Malard to Park was just behind the England international, and that allowed Carmona to get across.
12 min: United are also loosely in a 4-3-3 although Malard is rather isolated up top. The French forward has actually done quite a good job of holding the ball up, but is lacking options when she turns.
9 min: PSG are certainly the better side here. A low cross comes in from Echegini towards Leuchter but Le Tissier is there to quell the danger for United. But it’s wave after wave of attacks from the Parisians at the moment.
7 min: Ajibade, on the right wing for PSG in a 4-3-3 formation, has had Sandberg on toast in these opening moments, beating the Swede on two previous occasions and she does the same here, nipping around United’s left back and driving to the byline. But Sandberg tracks back and applies enough pressure to put Ajibade off her cross. Good determination from the United player.
5 min: It is worth flagging that this is just Middleton-Patel’s second start for Manchester United and what a stage to do it on. The keeper was caught out by that shot, but the scores remain level. There is quite a bit of rain in the air and these are some slick and slippery conditions.
PSG hit the post!
3 min: Echegini lets fly from 25 yards and the ball skims along the wet grass and crashes into the inside of the post, across the goalline before spinning out for a goal kick on the other side of the goal! Middleton-Patel got nowhere near that in the United goal and was lucky to see it bounce clear. PSG can’t come much closer to scoring!
2 min: PSG free-kick deep in their own half and Earps takes it, receiving both cheers and boos from the home fans in the break of play.
Peeeeeeeeeep!
And we’re off at Old Trafford!
The teams are out! United in their traditional red and black, PSG in their changed white strip. Old Trafford is nowhere near full, but that was never the aim here. It remains a historic evening for this women’s side.
PSG keeper tonight Mary Earps was interviewed by the Guardian’s Donald McRae earlier this month.
It followed three exclusive extracts from Earps’ new book that we carried on our website. You can read them here.
A huge shock in Munich as Bayern roar back from 2-0 down to beat Arsenal 3-2! That game has just finished … wow!
Here’s an interview we did with Karchaoui earlier this year.
For PSG, Jackie Groenen starts against her former club, having left Manchester United in 2022. Romee Leuchter is one to watch up top, leading the scoring standings in the French top flight with six goals. Olga Carmona, who scored Spain’s winner against England in the 2023 World Cup final and signed from Real Madrid this summer, starts at left back. In front of her on the left, captain Sakina Karchaoui is a huge threat. Rasheedat Ajibade is an exciting young forward on the bench, also a new arrival from a Madrid side in Atlético.
That’s a bold Manchester United starting XI! Both Terland and Toone drop to the bench with five changes made from the side that lost to Aston Villa: Middleton-Patel, Sandberg, Zigiotti, Awujo and Malard all coming into the team. If fans are wondering where goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce is, the manager Marc Skinner has just provided an update:
Phallon took a knock in the game [on Saturday] which puts her out of tonight’s game. We will reassess her over the next couple of days.”
Winger Celin Bizet Donnum, formerly of PSG of course, is out with a back injury. With Millie Turner still out and Dominique Janssen suspended, Gabby George starts at centre back alongside captain Maya Le Tissier.
Team news!
Manchester United: Middleton-Patel, Riviere, Le Tissier, George, Sandberg, Miyazawa, Awujo, Zigiotti Olme, Park, Malard, Rolfo.
Subs: Rendell, Blundell, Toone, Terland, Galton, Naalsund, Williams, Griffiths.
PSG: Earps, Chagas, de Almeida, Mbock, Carmona, Ebayilin, Groenen, Karchaoui, Ajibade, Leuchter, Echegini.
Subs: Kiedrzynek, Toussaint, Samoura, Brennskag-Dorsin, Gaetino, Elimbi, Graziani, Diakite, Fatier, Benera, Kanjinga, Morissaint.
Elsewhere tonight in the Champions League, things are going very well for Arsenal at Bayern Munich, with the Gunners 2-0 up at half-time. Live updates for the second half are available here, with Taha Hashim.
Preamble
When Mary Earps left Manchester United for PSG last summer, the goalkeeper didn’t mince her words. “[United] is about to undergo a period of transition, and unfortunately I don’t feel it aligns with the timing of where I’m at in my career, therefore I think now is the right time to make a change and embark on a new challenge.”
Sadly, her remarks felt justified. The week before Earps’ move was announced, it was revealed by the Guardian that United women’s team would be moving into portable buildings at the club’s Carrington training complex this season to allow the men’s squad to use the women’s building while the men’s indoor facilities were being revamped. United had finished the 2023-24 season in fifth, almost mid-table, 15 points adrift of Champions League qualification and although they had won the FA Cup at Wembley in May, club owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe decided not to turn up, choosing instead to attend the men’s side’s Premier League defeat at Arsenal. This did not feel like a club where world-class talent was given the proper chance to shine. Remember United were the final ‘big’ Premier League side to launch a Women’s Super League team, only doing so in 2018.
Tonight is the first female European match to be played at Old Trafford, so it does at least feel like steps have been made to treat the women’s team with the respect they deserve. Despite faltering at the weekend against Aston Villa, Manchester United have had an excellent season, just four points off WSL leaders Manchester City and are one of only three teams (Lyon and Barcelona) that have won all of their matches in the Champions League. This should be a magnificent occasion.
PSG are still regarded as the second best team in France but departures of key players has meant they are no longer regarded as one of the overall favourites to win the Champions League. Stars Korbin Albert and Marie-Antoinette Katoto, the club’s all-time top goal-scorer, departed for rivals Lyon while midfielder Grace Geyoro was sold for a world-record fee (£1.43m) to London City Lionesses. PSG have got off to a rocky start in the Champions League, losing both their opening games. Their trip to Old Trafford is absolutely crucial to their hopes of qualification. It should be a cracker.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT.
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