Armand: PSG were never in trouble

Paris Saint-Germain’s Sylvain Armand believes his side were always in control against BATE Borisov, despite their precarious position.

PSG took a 2-2 draw away with them after the first leg of their Europa League round-of-32 tie against Belarusian side BATE in Minsk last week.

With Thursday’s return fixture in Paris scoreless and time running out, all BATE needed was a single away goal to progress to the next round.

“They could have scored from a small mistake that we made, but we were never in too much trouble,” Armand said.

“I think we had many more chances than they did to get on the scoresheet, even if we came up against a side that played well, and produced some good stuff.”

“If we’d have been afraid it would have been difficult. That’s what we had to avoid. We had to play the match to win, and that’s what we did.”

Peguy Luyindula was one of three PSG players to spurn good chances for the hosts to take the lead at the Parc des Princes.

Renan Bressan might have grabbed an all-important goal for BATE with 20 minutes remaining, but PSG goalkeeper Apoula Edel made an instinctive close-range save to preserve the deadlock.

“You’re always afraid when it’s 0-0,” Luyindula said.

“We knew that at 0-0 we were through, and at 0-1 we would have been out. So there’s always that little bit of pressure, that stress of conceding a goal towards the end of the game. But Edel had a great game, and saved us at that moment.”

Next up for PSG is a revenge mission against Portuguese champions Benfica, the team who dumped them out of the UEFA Cup 4-3 on aggregate in 2006/07.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Armand said.

“It’s going to be a real European game. It’s going to be two great matches in two great stadiums whether it be here or over there. We’re going to enjoy it.”

“We’re happy to continue the adventure, and go to a stadium like that.”