European champions Paris St Germain advanced into the knockout stage of the Club World Cup as Group B winners with a 2-0 victory over hosts Seattle Sounders on Monday.
The Ligue 1 champions, who suffered a shock defeat by Botafogo on Friday and were guaranteed a spot in the last 16 with a win over Seattle, scored in each half through Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Achraf Hakimi.
With the result, coupled with Atletico Madrid’s 1-0 victory over Botafogo, PSG finished first in Group B with six points from three games. PSG face the Group A runners-up on Sunday in Atlanta while Botafogo will play the winner from that group on Saturday in Philadelphia.
“It’s a happy day. It feels good,” said PSG midfielder Joao Neves. “We are going to Atlanta … we will try to put our idea into the game no matter what team we are playing against.”
Seattle, who needed to beat PSG by a margin of three goals or more to even stand a chance of progressing, exit the Club World Cup winless after three games played in their home stadium.
PSG broke through in the 35th minute moments after the ball was cleared following a corner but fell to a wide open Vitinha on the edge of the box. Vitinha’s strike was headed off target but bounced off Kvaratskhelia’s back and into the Seattle goal.
They doubled their lead in the 66th minute after substitute Bradley Barcola drove into the area and, after an over-commitment by five Seattle players, spotted a wide open Hakimi who easily finished into the back of the net.
Seattle made a fast start to the game and had PSG pinned in their own defensive third during the opening minutes but the MLS side were unable to connect on a pair of early corner kicks.
On Seattle’s first corner, the ball dropped for Obed Vargas just outside the area but his volley sailed way right of the net while PSG’s Marquinhos headed the ball to safety at the second corner.
“It was a good start,” Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer said of his team’s effort. “We knew we were going to have to come out and be ready for the best league team in Europe so our guys came out into the game fired up.”
PSG then took over and nearly went ahead in the 12th minute when Desire Doue’s shot from the right side of the box was on target but Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei managed to turn it over the crossbar.
After the break, Seattle appeared to lack the drive they showcased earlier in the match while PSG kept pushing and displayed their counter-attacking prowess.
PSG nearly doubled their lead in the 60th minute when Hakimi delivered a brilliant cross toward the far post where an outstretched Neves managed to make contact but could not find the net.
“We managed to succeed in winning this match, I am happy,” said PSG manager Luis Enrique. “Of course, there’s a few things to fine tune but it is not easy to play on this type of pitch.
“It’s very different to European pitches. The grass is different and therefore it is not so easy to have the same smoothness to play our style of play but we did adapt well.”
