Paris Saint-Germain and Bayer Leverkusen faced off this Tuesday at the BayArena as part of Matchday 3 of the 2025-2026 Champions League. The match ended with a 2-7 victory for Paris. After the match, the German team’s coach, Kasper Hjulmand, spoke at a press conference, clearly showing pain.
Hjulmand: “We feel a lot of pain. We’re injured.”
“We have to apologize to the fans. They were incredible today, and we need them again on Sunday against Freiburg to improve. We feel a lot of pain. We’re injured.”
But we have to recover and look to the future. We were too open and we were thinking too much about the future, without balance. I would have liked to go into the locker room with the score at 1-1 and then make some changes.” But seven minutes before halftime, with a new structure, we lost the match. At 1-4, it was over.”
The situation is devastating: Leverkusen “exploded” at home, whereas the equalizer against PSG, receiving a red card for being down to 10 against 10, should have been an opportunity. But these somewhat “crazy” moments, which are outside the usual framework, are also sometimes difficult to manage. The organization changes, and there are many emotions.
In this game, PSG was stronger, with its collective certainty and individual talent. Paris moved at full speed, leaving Hjulmand no opportunity to reorganize his team at halftime to hope for a big win. The Parisians took full advantage of the situation and even added a goal after the break. This was enough to dash any hope of a crazy comeback. This then allows them to “manage” it.
Leverkusen will have to recover after such a blow. At least the German team can say that it is far from being the first (and probably not the last) to suffer a “slap” against this PSG.
