It might not have been the result he was after but Sydney FC coach Steve Corica says he was pleased with some of the attacking signs shown by his side against PSG.
The Sky Blues lost 3-0 against the French champions in China on Tuesday night, with superstars Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani both on the scoresheet for PSG.
But the Hyundai A-League champions had some threatening moments, with Adam Le Fondre, Luke Brattan and Ryan McGowan all going close to getting on the scoresheet.
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Milos Ninkovic also had the ball in the net in the first half, only for it to be ruled out for offside.
“We did hurt them a few times with our penetrating passes and forward runs in behind our defence,” Corica said.
“From my point of view our attack was quite good without scoring goals but we created the chances. I was pleased with that.”
Corica also would have been pleased by the performance of some of his young stars who were thrust into action against the Ligue 1 heavyweights.
Teenagers Harry Van Der Saag and Joel King started in the full-back roles, while 17-year-old Ryan Teague also got some game time in the second half.
“For us players it was a great experience to play against one of the biggest clubs in the world and some of the best players in the world,” said Rhyan Grant, who was deployed at centre-back due to Alex Wilkinson’s illness which forced him to miss the clash.
“As a club it’s great to be able to come to a competition like this and put Sydney FC on the world stage and show what we can do.”
While ecstatic at the experience of facing a club as strong as PSG, Grant said focus for the Sky Blues will immediately switch back to local matters, starting with next week’s FFA Cup clash against Brisbane Roar.
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“We’re champions from last year so we have the same goal this year to win that and to win the premiership as well as the FFA Cup which starts next week,” the Caltex Socceroos right-back said.
“We’re a pretty ambitious club and we want to win as many trophies as we can and that doesn’t change this year.”
