cavani ensures paris patience pays off at apoel published: tuesday 21 october 2014, 22.52cet apoel fc 0-1 paris saint-germain edinson cavani scored the only goal of a tight encounter with three minutes remaining after david luiz had made two crucial interventions for the visitors.
by vassiliki papantonopoulou from gsp stadium
• edinson cavani's 87th-minute goal gives paris points at apoel • apoel suffer first home defeat of the season despite spirited display • paris have 62% of possession but struggle to break through • david luiz makes two goalline clearances in second half • next games: paris v apoel (5 november)
a late goal from edinson cavani gave paris saint-germain a hard-earned victory at apoel fc, only a remarkable goalline clearance from david luiz having kept the scoresheet blank.
apoel stated their intent early as george efrem launched a counterattack from the left and crossed towards cillian sheridan, salvatore sirigu saving at the near post. paris were struggling to settle on the ball, apoel's tight defending and pressure high up the pitch disturbing their efforts. giorgos donis' players also tested the visitors' defence with their counterattacking, luiz blocking efrem's seventh-minute shot.
the paris midfield picked up their performance as the half unfolded, but with space at a premium were forced to go wide. laurent blanc's side still started to threaten, however, thiago motta trying his luck from range before javier pastore's effort was was blocked by urko pardo.
cavani then went even closer, failing to connect properly with lucas' ball and diverting wide, much to the relief of the typically vocal home crowd. paris continued to press for a first-half breakthrough but some brilliant defending by carlão and joão guilherme kept the visitors at bay.
on a night laden with goals elsewhere, the visitors came storming out of the blocks after the interval searching to break the deadlock and within a minute pardo had to tip over pardo's header. apoel were on the ropes but came back strongly and created the biggest opportunity of the night in the 56th minute.
gustavo manduca crossed from the left and tiago gomes' header was cleared acrobatically off the line by david luiz, the centre-back twisting to head away. the brazilian defender was there again moments later, when the ball escaped sirigu's hands after a scramble in the box.
those interventions proved crucial with three minutes to go. a long ball forward was knocked down by paris substitute jean-christophe bahebeck and cavani twisted away from gomes and carlão before stroking underneath pardo to take the points to france.
1. paris saint-germain...3...2...1...0...5...3...2...7 2. fc barcelona...3...2...0...1...6...4...2...6 3. afc ajax...3...0...2...1...3...5...-2...2 4. apoel fc...3...0...1...2...1...3...-2...1
