In the unlikely hero genre, it’s difficult to do better than Arnau Tenas this Sunday. The PSG replacement goalkeeper, completely unknown to the battalion, performed miracles against the Le Havre attackers after having had to replace Gigio Donnarumma at short notice in the 11th minute of play due to the expulsion of the Italian goalkeeper. It is largely to him that Paris owes its victory (0-2), its seventh in a row in Ligue 1, which allows it to take the lead in the championship.
Seven stops, three miracles
The young Spaniard (22 years old) had never played a single minute professionally in his career. Trained at La Masia (the FC Barcelona training center), he had not had the opportunity to play at the highest level with his longtime club. Arriving free this summer, Tenas experienced a baptism of dream fire: seven saves, three of which were quite exceptional, a reflex cuff against Bayo (64th) and a double point-blank save in front of Alioui (78th).
At the final whistle, his teammates warmly congratulated him, surrounding him on the pitch, like captain Kylian Mbappé and Luis Enrique, who hugged him. “I am very happy to have been in the goals, thank you to the club, I thought of my father, my brother”, reacted the person concerned at the microphone of Prime Video – and in French, please.
His coach could only praise his performance when he left the field: “Arnau, I know him very well since when he was in the U20s and I was coach of the Spain team, I happened to take him with me , in the A group. It adapts perfectly to the idea of football that teams have who want to bring out the ball. He is a goalkeeper who always trains as if it were his last training session. Today he had an opportunity as happens in a career and he took it well. He was at his level. »
Donnarumma (really) in the hard
In addition to his saves, the Spanish goalkeeper also impressed with the serenity displayed despite the tense context, at 10 against 11. He was particularly impeccable in the kicking game, which Donnarumma’s detractors will not have failed to note , quite numerous at the moment. Criticized after his foot blunder which led to a goal last weekend against Monaco and his hand error against Newcastle on Tuesday, the Italian (not helped by Mukiele at the time) paid this time for a completely out-of-time exit facing Casimir.
Tenas’ performance, in this context, makes an impression. Not to the point of shaking up the hierarchy (Keylor Navas is still at the club, by the way), but it can always be useful to know that you have reliable recourse in the event of a problem. Asked about his immediate future in the team, the goalkeeper simply replied that he was thinking “about next week’s match, and that’s it”. “If they give me matches to play, I will play,” he still added afterwards. It does not eat bread.