UCL: Ferran Torres hits hat-trick as PSG wallop Slovan  6-1

n n

Ferran Torres scored a hat-trick and Ousmane Dembele also starred as Paris Saint-Germain began their quest to win a third consecutive Champions League title by thrashing Slovan Bratislava 6-1 at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday.

n

Last year’s Ballon d’Or winner Dembele had bagged a brace by the midway point in the first half in the French capital, and then set up Spain’s World Cup final hero Torres to make it 3-0 by the interval.

n

Torres, a close-season signing from Barcelona, added two more just after the restart to complete his hat-trick before the hour mark, with Suleiman Camara pulling one back for the Slovakian champions and Fabian Ruiz then sealing PSG’s win.

n

Anything other than a comfortable PSG victory would have been an enormous surprise given the gulf in resources between these clubs, and this was really just a warm-up for Luis Enrique’s team ahead of much tougher tests to come in the league phase.

n

The French club are bidding to follow in the footsteps of the Real Madrid side of 2016 to 2018 and become just the second team in the history of the modern Champions League to win the trophy three years running.

n

Real, Ajax and Bayern Munich were the only teams to achieve that feat in the days of the old European Cup.

n

PSG’s next two games will be against teams hoping to end their reign, with a trip to Manchester City and a home clash with Barcelona to come in October.

n

Slovan, in contrast, are just hoping to do better than on their last appearance in the league phase two years ago, when they lost all eight matches.

n

– Tough night for Toure –

n

The Slovak side are now coached by Yaya Toure. The Ivorian former City and Barcelona player is the first African to coach a team in Europe’s elite club competition.

n

His team’s resistance lasted only 17 minutes, with PSG going in front after Nuno Mendes crashed a magnificent shot off a post from outside the box. The ball fell to Dembele, who controlled and slotted it in.

n

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.

n

Dembele is a contender to win this year’s Ballon d’Or, but nine of his current PSG teammates are also among the 30 nominees for the prize to be handed out at a ceremony in London next month.

n

Torres is one of those candidates, mainly thanks to the decisive goal he scored to give Spain victory over Argentina in the World Cup final in July.

n

The ex-Barcelona striker converted an inviting Dembele cross to make it 3-0 on 31 minutes, 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.

n

However, Dembele’s effort was turned onto the underside of the bar by goalkeeper Dominik Takac.

n

It was 4-0 two minutes into the second half when Torres took a touch and fired in from the edge of the area after a great run by his fellow new signing Maghnes Akliouche.

n

Mendes had a goal disallowed for offside before Torres got his third of the night, and PSG’s fifth, by guiding a Dembele corner into the net with his knee.

n

Slovan could have been forgiven for just wanting to be put out of their misery, but they didn’t disgrace themselves and Gambian winger Camara pulled one back with a great strike.

n

However, Ruiz, another of Spain’s World Cup stars, prodded in a loose ball late on to make it 6-1.

n

AFP

n n