Just a few weeks after winning the UEFA Champions League, Paris's first match of this new adventure had an air of continuity about it. Before taking on opponents from other corners of the world, PSG first had to face a team from our own continent: Atlético Madrid, whom they had already encountered in the Champions League league phase this season.
And, continuing in the same vein, Luis Enrique fielded a starting XI that greatly resembled the one that had taken the field in Munich two weeks earlier. The only exception was the inclusion of Gonçalo Ramos, who started up front in place of the injured Ousmane Dembélé.
After a cautious first quarter of an hour, the Parisian machine began to click into gear. Under the Californian sun, possession was clearly dominated by the men in red and blue. The capital club were the first to look dangerous and were rewarded when Fabian Ruiz, clearly a fan of continuity, broke the deadlock.
Doué accelerated and found Kvara, who controlled the ball in the box with his back to goal. The Georgian waited just long enough before laying the ball back to Ruiz, who fired a powerful left-footed shot low past Oblak to put Paris ahead (1-0, 19'). The rhythm was back, and so too the intelligent positioning of our midfielders, the brilliance of our attackers and the hard work of our defenders. All the ingredients were there, exported to the United States, and they were brought to bear right from the first match.
Paris controlled the game and left their opponents with little hope. There was only one glimmer for the Spaniards in the first half, with a fleeting incursion into Parisian territory, but on the counterattack that followed, PSG punished them. The transition was quick, with Vitinha bursting into the box with the choice between Kvara on the left or Doué on the right. However, with his teammates' runs having opened the way for him to try his luck, the Portuguese wizard went for it and beat Oblak with a right-footed shot into the far corner (2-0, 45'+2).
Even though the Parisian machine was clearly firing on all cylinders, they knew they couldn't afford let their guard down, especially against a team as experienced as Atlético. And the Colchoneros did manage to reduce the deficit - or at least thought they had - when Alvarez fired an angled shot past Donnarumma. But, after consulting VAR, the referee disallowed the goal for a foul by Koke on Doué in the lead-up (60').
The duels were fierce, and the game got tougher, with Clément Lenglet seeing red for dissent late in the piece (78'). Despite being a man down, the Madrid side tried to force their way back into the match, but they couldn't quite manage to shake the Parisians.
And then Les Rouge et Bleu scored a third goal, once again with an echo of that Champions League win! Senny Mayulu, who had just come on, took advantage of a poor clearance by the Atlético defence to turn and shoot past Oblak (3-0, 86'). To make things worse for the Spaniards, Le Normand then committed a handball in his own area, with Lee converting the resulting penalty to seal Paris's victory (4-0, 90'+7).
It was an impressive victory that got the European champions' Club World Cup campaign off to a perfect start ahead of their Matchday 2 clash with Botafogo at 03:00 on Thursday.