Horan happy to help Paris move forward
Thursday, October 16, 2014
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Paris Saint-Germain's Lindsey Horan was all smiles after her "strange goal" saw off FC Twente, though Farid Benstiti hopes his players can "become more clinical".
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Lindsey Horan expressed delight with her "strange goal" after sealing Paris Saint-Germain's passage to the round of 16 at FC Twente's expense.
Paris set up a meeting with French rivals Olympique Lyonnais thanks to a 3-1 aggregate win and 1-0 victory on the night, Horan's late effort bobbling in off a post. She is now relishing next month's showdown with Lyon, though coach Farid Benstiti – who spent nine years as OL boss – emphasised a need "to become more clinical". Twente's Maayke Heuver took solace from a positive performance, meanwhile.
Lindsey Horan, Paris forward
I'm really happy that our team is moving on to the next round and it feels really good to get another win because obviously we want to keep winning games. This is just one more improvement for our team and we're going to the next round, so it's really exciting.
Especially in the first half, we got maybe six or seven chances. The thing we need to focus on is that we that we created those opportunities, and that's a good improvement for our team, especially in big games against difficult teams like this.
It was a strange goal. I'm happy we won and that it went in the back of the net. 'Kos' [Kosovare Asllani] got a touch on it and I did whatever I could to get another touch on it. I watched it for a very long time before it eventually went in the back of the net.
It's always a difficult match against Lyon and we know they're such a good team with great players, and I think the same of our team. It's going to be a battle. Obviously playing two games and playing another game in the league is going to be difficult. We've got to prepare as much as they do.
PSG started a project a few years ago and things are starting to happen, on the men's and women's side. We're improving so much and you can see the progress. Last year in the Champions League, we went out in the first round against Tyresö and now we've moved on to the next round this year. So you can see improvements and we have a lot of new players, which is really cool.
Farid Benstiti, Paris coach
What's important is that we qualified. Twente never really caused us any problems. We were very solid, but our last touch was wanting. The players were frustrated that their moves were good but the finishing wasn't there at the end.
I'd have liked my players to get more reward for their efforts. Their finishing was off in training yesterday as well, so we'll need to become more clinical. Against Lyon, if you get one chance, you need to put it in. Still, I think that if Lindsey had started, she would have scored in the first half.
We need to get our injured players back – we need Laure Boulleau, Marie-Laure Delie, Kenza Dali. Our young players are important to the squad and have a lot of talent, but if we can get those players back, the games against Lyon will be very different.
Our team is better than last year. We give off a certain strength and have more power and diversity than before. The tie with Lyon will be a real showdown. It's come a little early, but we're OK with that. We have to get past this obstacle and we're really looking forward to it. Maybe if we have fewer chances we'll be more effective, because we'll be more focused on the need to be clinical – and it'll be essential to be clinical against Lyon.
Laura Georges, Paris defender
The aim was to qualify and do so in style if possible. We wanted to finish our chances but also to be more solid, because they caused us trouble in the first leg. We wanted to impose ourselves more on the game and be more aggressive.
Maayke Heuver, Twente midfielder
It was very difficult. They won the first game so we needed to score and put pressure on their defenders. But that was the problem – we couldn't build pressure and in the last ten minutes everyone wanted to get forward, and they got space and scored to make it 1-0. Then it was too hard to get three or four goals. We're disappointed, but for the team it was a good game. We're young and as a team we played well.
Paris were physically better. Anouk [Dekker] is our tallest player and she had to win all the duels. We're taking steps, but we need to be tougher and maybe the next time we play Paris we will be better. We're playing better and working better as a team. It would be good if we can carry on like this.