It was tied, it wasn’t tied; but wait, it was tied again? Not quite. ACF Fiorentina, who finished fourth in Serie A, took on back-to-back Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain in Harrison, New Jersey Tuesday night at Red Bull Arena in the International Champions Cup.
From the start of the match the Italian club appeared to be a step behind the Parisian giants who dominated the first half. Strong defense would keep Paris Saint-Germain from finding the back of the net early and frequent, but in the 35th minute the PSG broke the seal. A ball assisted by Gregory Van der Wiel found the foot as Blaise Matuidi as the French international broke the draw with a strike from his left foot. Things did not change for the remainder of the half. PSG pressed and Fiorentina sat back and tried to absorb the assault as best they could, but in six minutes Jean-Kevin Augustine put Paris up 2-0 on a ball assisted by Matuiti who remained involved in the action.
The 2nd half was completely differently from the first, everyone was attacking, and both sides appeared to be scoring. Fiorentina looked much stronger in the final 45 as they saw several scoring opportunities go wide of the net before netting their first goal in the 60th minute off the foot of newly subbed in Joaquin.
Moments later in the 65th minute Fiorentina believed they had scored the equalizing goal, but Federico Bernardeschi was called offsides. After an opportunity that was not, the French club pulled away. Fan favorite Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a one-timer 69th minute goal off a cross from Lucas Moura. Shortly after the French club cushioned their lead, young, up-and-coming star Augustin scored his second goal of the night putting Paris up 4-1.
In the 73rd minute Italian supporters had something to cheer about as Italian international and New Jersey native Giuseppe Rossi was subbed into the match and almost immediately scored his side’s second and final goal of the night in front of his friends and family in a 75th minute penalty shot that was conceded by a hand ball off PSG.
Fiorentina had glimmers of hope throughout the evening, but the night ultimately belonged to the Parisians and their supporters who chanted “Allez Paris” as they went on to win of a final score of 4-2.
