SOCCER/Uefa Cup, first round, second leg/PSG - 2 Derry City - 0: With three of the home team's regulars exiled, dropped or injured they were billing this as the "night without the stars" in the French capital yesterday. As it turned out, those players PSG coach Guy Lacombe could still call upon to do his bidding on the field shone too brightly for Derry City.
The win was well earned by a team that were ahead after just seven minutes and never looked remotely like surrendering their advantage over the course of the contest that followed.
That's not to say Derry won't be disappointed with the manner of their defeat, however, for their hopes of becoming the first Irish side to make the group stages of a European competition were dead by half-time thanks mainly to two rather hapless attempts to defend set-pieces.
For the 2,400 travelling supporters amongst the 22,000 strong crowd it was a rather flat ending to what had been a fine European adventure. In truth, they didn't seem to mind too much while their team's inability to spoil the party in the Parc des Princes only seemed to further endear the City fans to locals who serenaded them constantly and brandished countless banners bearing messages of goodwill including one that bore the slogan, "Welcome to free Paris".
City's task, of course, had always looked a tough one and if they were to have any chance they clearly needed to hold their own in the opening stages and prevent their opponents finding their rhythm.
Instead, they took a while to settle themselves and had conceded a goal before the game had really taken on any discernable pattern. The setback came from the contest's first corner and while Edouard Cisse's header was not the best executed it really didn't need to be. As the ball bounced back off the ground four yards short of the goal line Barry Molloy and David Forde appeared to suffer a calamitous breakdown in communications with the midfielder, stationed just inside the far post, only hindering his goalkeeper's efforts to make the save.
The early lead gave the home side just the cushion the visitors would have wanted to avoid but, to be fair, PSG's superiority was reasonably obvious in every area of the field.
Though Killian Brennan and Ciarán Martyn did their best to drive their side forward and Pat McCourt - after some early lapses - had his moments, both Molloy and Kevin Deery struggled in central midfield, while Gary Beckett, so often one of the team's heroes of late, simply looked lost in the lone striker's role against defenders of such quality.
In defence, the visitors were feeling the pressure too. Contrary to expectations, Lacombe had stuck with the approach that had served his side rather well at the Brandywell a fortnight ago. Again the French packed midfield and again they hurried and hassled their opponents each and every time they got the ball.
The result, as it had been in the first leg, was that City gave the ball away far too cheaply against players who knew what to do when presented with an opportunity.
Though Pauletta played up front by himself, Bonaventure Kalou, Pierre Alain Frau and Paulo Cesar all looked to lend support to the Portuguese striker when in possession and the trio's speed moving forward sometimes left Kenny's back four struggling to cope.
PSG's best chance prior to the second goal came from another corner but this time Martyn cleared from off the goal line, while there were a couple of occasions when the locals simply should have done better with medium to long range shots.
Darren Kelly and Ken Oman both made important challenges during this spell but when Molloy took Bernard Mendy's legs three minutes before half-time both he and his team-mates paid a hefty price as Paulo Cesar cut the resulting free-kick back to Pauletta near the penalty spot from where his low drive somehow squeezed through a crowded six yard box and into the goal.
From that, there was never going to be any way back and Kenny must have been thinking about the night in Trondheim three years ago when Bohemians were simply overrun after setting out to chase a 1-0 deficit. The Dubliner, to his credit though, still opted to fight for something from this game with Kevin McHugh and Mark Farren both brought on after an hour as City changed their shape in the hope of presenting more of a threat up front.
John O'Flynn was added to the mix eight minutes from time but none came remotely close to fundamentally altering the course of a game that was going very much the way of the locals. Over the last half hour Darren Kelly was forced to clear off the line, Pancrate twice missed good chances and Cristian Rodriguez twice just missed the target.
It might, in short, have been worse for the Irish side but in truth it seemed not even the French would actually have wanted it that way.
PSG: Landreau; Mendy, Traore, Armand, Drame; Rozehnal, Cisse; Frau, Paulo Cesar, Kalou (Rodriguez, 66 mins); Pauletta (Pancrate, 66 mins).
DERRY CITY: Forde; McCallion, Oman, Kelly, Hargan (O'Flynn, 82 mins); Molloy; McCourt (McHugh, 61 mins), Deery, Martyn, Brennan; Beckett (Farren, 61 mins).
Referee: Morekhov (Ukraine).
