After having very easily swept aside First Vienna on Wednesday (9-0) for its entry into the preliminary rounds of the Champions League, Paris FC had to work harder to take out Sparta Prague this Saturday (2-0), still at the Bilbörsen Arena in Linköping, in the south of Sweden. The Parisians needed the talent of Clara Mateo to reach the second round. They will find out their next opponent during the draw which will take place on Monday early afternoon in Nyon (Switzerland). This final round before the group stage (first leg on September 18-19 and return leg on September 25-26) will see the entry into the competition of several big fish (PSG, Wolfsburg, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Juventus Turin). Not enough to scare those who had the scalp of Wolfsburg last season at the same stage (3-3, 2-0).
While she had not scored on Wednesday against Vienna, despite three assists, Clara Mateo made up for the anomaly this Saturday against Prague, by opening the score with a curled left-footed shot from 20 meters, after a one-two with Mathilde Bourdieu (36th). The latter had not been able to exploit a magnificent pass from the same Mateo, unstoppable, a few moments earlier (31st).
PFC clearly dominated the first half, with Julie Dufour’s shot pushed back on the line (6th) and Gaëtane Thiney’s post (37th), but the Czechs remained threatening on the counter. For example, it took the decisive intervention of Chiamaka Nnadozie to deflect a shot from Michaela Khyrova onto the bar (27th). Despite a lack of cutting edge in the final moves to put themselves out of harm’s way, the Parisians were able to keep their lead after half-time with an ultra-reassuring Nnadozie, in a match that became increasingly choppy as the minutes went by. Faced with the physical play of the Czechs, Paris was finally freed by a header from Kaja Korosec, on a corner taken by… Clara Mateo, the star of the match (85th).
