psg crack under pressure at schalke published: friday 24 october 2008, 0.42cet fc schalke 04 3-1 paris saint-germain fc kevin kuranyi was among the scorers in gelsenkirchen as the german team kicked off their uefa cup group a campaign with a comfortable win.
a larrys mabiala own goal opened the floodgates in gelsenkirchen as fred rutten's fc schalke 04 kicked off their uefa cup group a campaign with a comfortable win against paris saint-germain fc.
cruel luck defender mabiala diverted levan kobiashvili's cross past mickaël landreau in the psg goal after 12 minutes, by which time the hosts had already created several chances. kevin kuranyi and halil altıntop also scored for the bundesliga club either side of half-time, with the visitors from france having the sole consolation of clément chantôme's 92nd-minute strike. kežman resistance the german team dominated from the start. rafinha's dangerous cross into the psg area narrowly evaded both kuranyi and marcelo bordon, before jermaine jones headed wide of the left-hand post. once mabiala's slice of misfortune had left his side playing catch-up, mateja kežman led the psg resistance – testing schalke keeper manuel neuer with a 23rd-minute effort, then capitalising on heiko westermann's error to get in behind the home defence but shoot wide.
doubling up however, those were rare moments of relief for psg who went 2-0 down six minutes before the interval. jefferson farfán's left-wing centre picked out germany forward kuranyi who controlled the ball before hammering it into the top corner. ıf paul le guen's men returned from the interval looking more spirited, they came up against an obdurate schalke rearguard and neuer gathered their only shot of note from loris arnaud.
game over schalke eventually put an end to the contest on 70 minutes. altıntop passed to kuranyi, then collected his back-heeled return before slotting past landreau. the keeper spared psg further indignity, blocking late attempts from farfán and altıntop, while in truth the added-time strike from chantôme – directed through neuer's legs – represented scant consolation for the ligue 1 outfit.
