'It's serious', says Enrique on Ramos' opening day injury for PSG

By Sports Desk August 17, 2024

Luis Enrique believes Goncalo Ramos' injury is "serious" after the forward limped off early on in Paris Saint-Germain's opening day win over Le Harve. 

Ramos, who scored 11 goals for PSG last season, was forced to withdraw from the action at the Stade Oceane in the 20th minute following a late tackle from behind. 

The Portugal international provided the assist for Lee Kang-In's strike inside three minutes, with only Angel Di Maria starting a game, delivering an assist and being subbed off earlier than Ramos in a Ligue 1 fixture. 

His withdrawal serves as a significant blow for Enrique, who is looking to replace the 27 league goals scored by Kylian Mbappe last season after his move to Real Madrid. 

"I’m not a doctor but I think it looks pretty serious. I don’t know how many weeks he will be out injured but it’s serious," Enrique said. 

Despite the convincing scoreline, the defending champions took advantage of a late collapse from their opponents, scoring three times in the final six minutes after Gautier Lloris had levelled the encounter three minutes into the second half. 

Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola and Randal Kolo Muani struck late, with new signing Joao Neves becoming only the second player to deliver two assists for his debut with PSG in the same game in all competitions in the 21st century. 

But Enrique acknowledged that his side relaxed after Kang-In's opener, saying the encounter "wasn't easy at all" in Normandy. 

"It wasn't easy at all. Maybe we started too calmly. We scored a goal very quickly and that relaxed us a bit too much, and we suffered a bit," Enrique said.  

"I think in the second half we had more chances, more clear-cut chances and we were able to kill off the match. But it was difficult.

"We're clearly a team that's trying to play to its strengths. It's true that it was in the last part of the match that we performed best.

"We had some important players in the team and it's always difficult to play away from home. It's complicated and today we did it again."

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    Michal Probierz's side know they must win both of their last two matches in November to stand a chance of finishing in the top two, with Croatia missing the chance to go within a point of Group A3 leaders Portugal after their goalless draw with Scotland.

    Poland took the lead in the fifth minute when Piotr Zielinski's effort deflected off Martin Erlic and beyond Dominik Livakovic, only for Borna Sosa to restore parity soon after.

    The visitors then silenced Stadion Narodowy with two goals in quick succession, as Petar Sucic fired into the far corner before turning provider for Martin Baturina's first senior international goal.

    But the first-half scoring was not finished there, with Nicola Zalewski taking advantage of some poor Croatia defending to reduce the arrears on the stroke of half-time.

    Robert Lewandowski entered the fray just after the hour, and made an instant impact to help level the scores six minutes after his introduction, teeing up Sebastian Szymanski, who curled past Livakovic.

    An enthralling encounter took another twist with 14 minutes remaining when Livakovic was sent off for a high challenge on Lewandowski after clearing the ball, but Poland were unable to take advantage of their one-man advantage.

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