Emery continues the tradition as PSG beat Lyon to lift Trophee des Champions
Unai Emery collected his first trophy as Paris Saint-Germain head coach after the Ligue 1 holders ran riot in a 4-1 rout of Lyon in the Trophee des Champions.
Laurent Blanc led PSG to back-to-back domestic trebles over the past two seasons, but a failure to deliver the Champions League prompted the club’s hierarchy to make a change in the dugout.
Emery, who guided Sevilla to a historic three straight Europa League triumphs, was charged with the task and the early signs were good in Austria as PSG put in a devastating display of incisive attacking football.
Despite losing talismanic top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the close-season, PSG still had plenty of goal threat and it was 3-0 by half-time with Javier Pastore – now in ownership of Ibrahimovic’s number 10 shirt – opening the scoring.
Lucas Moura added a scrappy second and transfer-window signing Hatem Ben Arfa clinically finished a brilliant team move to all but end the contest before the impressive Layvin Kurzawa finished the job after the break, Corentin Tolisso’s late goal nothing more than a consolation for Lyon.
It marks the continuation of a fine pre-season under Emery with PSG having soundly beaten Inter, Real Madrid and Leicester City in the International Champions Cup, and they appear in great shape ahead of Friday’s Ligue 1 opener at Bastia.
Lyon, who finished 31 points behind PSG last term, made a decent start and Nabil Fekir rightly had a goal ruled out for offside after Kevin Trapp had spilled Jeremy Morel’s initial effort.
But PSG were quickly in full stride and it was 1-0 in the ninth minute. Kurzawa was afforded too much space down the left and his superb cross was finished with a cool side-footed volley from Pastore.
The impressive Di Maria almost made it 2-0 with an audacious effort from near the halfway line that Anthony Lopes clawed away.
It was a short respite, though, as Pastore squared for Lucas to bundle into the bottom right-hand corner following a tangle of legs with Morel.
Di Maria’s luck was out again when he attempted a delightful chip that had enough height to beat Lopes but cruelly rebounded off the crossbar.
A deserved third arrived in the 34th minute as a sharp move led to Di Maria teeing up Ben Arfa to emphatically hammer his shot into the top-left corner from near the penalty spot.
Shortly after the break, Pastore sprung the offside trap but selfishly tried to chip Lopes with Ben Arfa wide open to his right.
But by 54 minutes it was 4-0. Pastore caught a static Lyon defence cold with a quick free-kick and full-back Kurzawa showed the composure of a striker to slide his effort past Lopes.
Lyon showed a couple of signs of life with Maxwel Cornet’s curling effort bringing out the best in Trapp, and Tolisso headed home Christophe Jallet’s superb crossed volley from the right with three minutes remaining.
PSG were well out of sight, though, and they beat Lyon in the Trophee des Champions for the second season running to lift the trophy for a fourth straight year.
