Luis Enrique hesitated between Safonov and Tenas for possible penalties

The Coupe de France was close to offering us a scenario that few would have imagined. For its round of 16, PSG traveled to Clermont-Ferrand to face Espaly (4-2), a National 3 team. While this meeting had all the appearance of a formality for the Parisians, it was necessary to wait for the 88th minute and a goal from Bradley Barcola to see them definitely ahead on the scoreboard. Before his team’s third goal, Luis Enrique chose to send Matvey Safonov to warm up in the face of the possibility of a penalty shootout.

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A strong decision, since Arnau Tenas played his first minutes of the season. But, at a press conference, Luis Enrique affirmed that he was also not certain of bringing in the Russian goalkeeper in the event of a penalty shootout: “ I started Safonov in the warm-up so as to keep all possibilities open. I wasn’t sure I would make this change if there had been penalties because Tenas is also good at this exercise. But once again, I wanted to leave everything open and it was a chance not to go to penalties. »