On Friday evening, a PSG player scored a crucial goal to help send his team to the semi finals of this summer's FIFA World Cup over in North America.
On Friday evening, the sole game at this summer's FIFA World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico involved a PSG player, as Fabian Ruiz and Spain took on Belgium in the second quarter final at the SoFi Stadium.
Having started their opening game, Ruiz then found himself coming off the bench in four consecutive games. However, for this one, the PSG midfielder found himself back in manager Luis de la Fuente's starting XI.
On the half hour mark, he proved why it was a stroke of genius to start him. After an initial shot was spilled by Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Ruiz was johnny on the spot to convert the rebound from close range and give the European Champions the lead. Great anticipation, especially for a midfield player.
However, ten minutes or so later, Belgium equalised, and the two sides went into the break at 1-1. Ten minutes after the interval, Ruiz was substituted. It felt like a bit of a harsh decision, not just because he scored, but he was just in general playing well in what was an improved Spanish performance, at least with the ball anyway.
Nevertheless, all is well that ends well, as Spain scored a winner just two minutes from the end of normal time, which was enough to send them through to the semi finals, despite a late scare in stoppage time.
This means that on Tuesday, we will get Ruiz vs the French mafia of Lucas Hernandez, Warren Zaire-Emery, Bradley Barcola, Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele. Fascinating stuff. We know who manager Luis Enrique will be wanting to win. It's all pretty ironic as he didn't actually pick Ruiz for the 2022 World Cup when he was manager of the Spain national team (albeit he did for Euro 2020, 18 months prior).
So, that enthralling semi final on Tuesday will kick off at 21:00 CET, and will take place in Arlington, at the AT&T Stadium. Fun fact: The last time the team that won the first semi final (on the Tuesday) did not go onto win the Euros or World Cup was the 2010 edition in South Africa. If that trend continues this year, we are guaranteed to have a PSG player win the World Cup this summer, so let's see.
Funnily enough, that previous time at the 2010 World Cup was when Spain themselves played Germany in the second semi final on the Wednesday. Whatever happens, go well to all the PSG players involved, and don't get injured.
