Marcus Rashford smashed home a rocket of a right-footed strike to earn Manchester United a late 2-1 win over Paris St Germain in their Group H Champions League opener on Monday night.
But while Rashford grabbed the headlines with his sensational 87th-minute strike, it was 22-year-old defender Axel Tuanzebe who earned rave reviews from colleagues and boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer following his display in Paris after coming in for injured skipper Harry Maguire.
Playing in his first match in 2020 after recovering from a series of injuries which kept him out for 10 months, Tuanzebe showed incredible steel on defence and even chased down one of the world’s fastest attackers in Kylian Mbappe to keep PSG scoreless in the encounter.
The hosts’ only goal came via Anthony Martial – an own goal in the 55th minute from a PSG corner.
With Bruno Fernandes having opened the scoring from the spot after a retake after Martial was brought down in the 22nd minute, United frustrated PSG superstars Neymar and Mbappe.
And Solskjaer says of Tuanzebe’s performance: “Axel did fantastic. He has been out for 10 months so to put a performance up like this against Neymar and Mbappe, he almost surprised us as well.
“He is a tremendous defender, a great leader. We have known for years he is going to be a top
player for us. To see the way he was it was unbelievable. Absolutely spot-on.”
Man of the Match and goalkeeper David de Gea adds: “Unbelievable. He did really, really well. He has been in difficult moments but now he has showed he is capable of playing in big games.”
Tuesday night’s Champions League results
PSG 1 Man United 2
Barcelona 5 Ferencvaros 1
Chelsea 0 Sevilla 0
Lazio 3 Borussia
Dortmund 1
Rennes 1 Krasnodar 1
RB Leipzig 2 Istanbul Basaksehir 0
Dynamo Kiev 0 Juventus 2
Zenit 1 Club Brugge 2
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