PSG took Man Utd too lightly, it wasn´t psychological – Kimpembe

Presnel Kimpembe is adamant Paris Saint-Germain are not harbouring psychological scars in the Champions League and that the last-16 capitulation against Manchester United was a case of taking their opponents too lightly.

The Ligue 1 champions made unwanted history on Wednesday as they became the first team to fall in a Champions League knockout-round match after winning an away first leg by two or more goals.

Kimpembe was at the heart of the dramatic 3-1 defeat, which saw PSG exit 3-3 via the away-goals rule, when a contentious VAR decision saw the centre-back pinged for the handball from which Marcus Rashford smashed in the crucial last-gasp penalty.

It was the latest demoralising defeat for big-spending PSG and came just two years after a 4-0 first-leg win over Barcelona was overturned by a stunning 6-1 reverse at Camp Nou.

Many have questioned PSG’s mental fortitude in the Champions League as a result, but Kimpembe says the team were guilty of thinking the job was done at Old Trafford – a mindset he vowed they would never repeat.

Speaking on Youtube’s Bros. Stories, Kimpembe said: “It hurts me, very bad even, I feel what the fans feel, I can see their anger, I realise it, I understand it and, most importantly, I assume it, so that I can swallow it. 

“It’s a game that inevitably stays in the heads but that we will have to forget for the rest of the season. 

“We lost that determination and that rage we had in the first leg. It’s not the fact of having lived through past experiences that made us feel stressed or whatever it was. 

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Paris Saint-Germain – Manchester United pic.twitter.com/IUuP1O7Rs9

— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) March 6, 2019

“No, it was really a self-satisfaction, we took this game lightly, and it’s something that will never happen to me again. It’s enough, never again.

“Of course, we will lose more games in the Champions League but losing games like this is over, I don’t want it to happen to us anymore

“We’ll have to raise our heads so we can move on. It’s going to be complicated, but there’s still the Ligue 1 [title], the Coupe de France, which is important to us too. 

“Even if all the world thinks winning these trophies is easy, it’s never easy.”