Late Dembele strike wins PSG French Champions Trophy in Doha

Ousmane Dembele’s stoppage-time goal settled the French Champions Trophy on Sunday, giving Paris Saint-Germain a 1-0 win over Monaco in a fixture played in Doha.

PSG’s troubles in front of goal this season have often cost them in the Champions League, and they were thwarted throughout this game by a combination of poor finishing and some fine saves by Monaco goalkeeper Philipp Koehn.

However, it was ultimately a deserved victory for Luis Enrique’s team, as PSG won the trophy — the French equivalent of a Super Cup or England’s Community Shield — for the 11th time in the last 12 seasons.

This fixture was supposed to be staged in Beijing on August 8 as the curtain-raiser to the French campaign.

However, it ended up being called off by the Chinese authorities, and Qatar — which owns PSG via Qatar Sports Investments — stepped in to offer to stage the game.

It took place at Doha’s Stadium 974, which was a host venue at the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar and which was not full for the occasion.

PSG won a clean sweep of the domestic honours in France last season and were looking to claim the first leg of another treble in this campaign.

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A 4-2 win away in Monaco last month, when Dembele scored a double, allowed them to finish 2024 with a 10-point lead at the top of Ligue 1 from both Marseille and the principality club.

When Desire Doue pounced on a slack pass out by Koehn and sent a shot off the bar on eight minutes, it looked like it was going to be a very long evening for Monaco.

Vitinha sent a shot just wide and Lee Kang-in had a thunderous strike tipped over by Koehn, although Monaco also threatened when a Maghnes Akliouche hit was tipped away by Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Eliesse Ben Seghir