PSG may have had a slow start in the Champions League, but Luis Enrique’s side have the qualities to be contenders

Paris — Paris Saint-Germain haven’t had a great start in the UEFA Champions League without Kylian Mbappe, but even a 1-0 win over Girona on Wednesday is no reason for head coach Luis Enrique to panic. The Ligue 1 giants couldn’t beat the Spaniards until late at the Parc des Princes as Paulo Gazzaniga showed excellent form for the visitors, but a big mistake allowed Nuno Mendes to score as Ousmane Dembele didn’t take advantage of Les Parisiens’ best chance.

The La Liga side did well to get a hard-earned point on their UCL debut, which they almost got and the visitors arguably performed better than they were capable of, with many of their star players moving on this summer after an incredible campaign. However, it is easy to forget just how young this PSG squad is, with key players Joao Neves and Willian Pacho not even 22 years old, making this the youngest group of players in the final stages of the Champions League last year.

While it wasn’t the ideal way to start the new UCL campaign at the Parc des Princes, with a section of diehard supporters missing and almost no goals to celebrate, this new and more organic Parisian outfit is showing signs of developing into a top domestic and continental collective and has the fortune to prove it. We could arguably have seen a full-strength PSG if Goncalo Ramos and Lucas Hernandez were fit, but working with those absences has also been a character-building exercise for the French capital club’s many young players.

Captain Marquinhos is 30 and the most experienced player, while Fabian Ruiz is also 28, but the experienced Dembele is also just 27, while Achraf Hakimi looks like he has been in the squad for longer than a 25-year-old would. With that in mind, it’s impressive that Luis Enrique’s side are already in the process of recovering, despite losing Mbappe in the summer, while parts of Girona were depleted and operating up top in Ramos’ absence, producing some superb football that arguably deserved more than one goal.

In fact, if Gazzaniga had not made a number of fine saves during the 90 minutes, the Spaniards could have found themselves even further behind by 1-0 at full-time. As it happened, Girona made life difficult for PSG without really threatening debutant Matvey Safonov in the home goal and a defeat or even a draw would have been a little harsh on the hosts given the chances that were made. For example, a sharper Dembele would have beaten Gazzaniga while Kolo Muani headed narrowly wide.

This kind of result and performance can happen with a group of young players and Luis Enrique will be pleased with how his group scored the goal that was needed to turn one point into three, but it was also a reminder that this is a process. Perhaps it is an unpopular opinion given what people have become used to with PSG, but there can be no debate that this is the best it has been since the first five games, with 17 goals scored and only three conceded and five wins from five.

There may be some tricky games as the season progresses, but this Parisian team already feels more balanced and organized than it did when Mbappe was involved — even if they don’t have that obvious superstar-dust streak just yet. If this group can stay focused and united in the coming months, while also getting key players like Ramos and Hernandez back, there’s no reason they can’t be competitive as this brand-new Champions League evolves into itself and no one really knows what to expect.