Former Tottenham flop Paulo Gazzaniga has been defended by Girona boss Michel after his howler saw the Spanish side fall to a late defeat at PSG.
Gazzaniga has become Girona's first-choice keeper since arriving from Fulham in 2022. He was between the sticks on Wednesday night as the La Liga club travelled to the French capital for their first-ever Champions League game.
With the game heading into injury time, the score was goalless but Gazzaniga then plucked defeat from the jaws of an impressive draw. Nuno Mendes drilled in a cross from the wing, with Gazzaniga dropping down to his knees to collect it.
But he let the ball squirm under his legs and into the net, with Girona unable to equalise. But boss Michel was defensive of the Argentine, who spent a mixed four years at Spurs after joining in 2017.
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"Mistakes are part of the game and Gazzaniga made three incredible saves that saved us. Mistakes are forgivable, lack of attitude is not. That mistake (Gazzaniga's) is mine. I congratulated him and he has all our confidence," Michel said.
"The goal hurts, but in terms of feeling, we gave a good account of us, although we didn't have many chances to win it anyway. We are a very, very humble club, with players who carry a lot of positive and negative things in their shoulders and it was a very special day for them.
"Now in the dressing room, people are a little bit down, I told them that we have to be proud of the game we played. We have to recognise that their victory is deserved but we are proud of the way we work. Let's see if we get another chance to come to Paris next year.
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"In the second half, we were tired, PSG pressed us more, we were continually defending a lot. We passed our first experience in the Champions League, we competed against a great team where the pressure can stiffen you and the team gave a good performance."
PSG boss Luis Enrique was keen to point out his side were the dominant team throughout Wednesday evening. But he conceded that before Gazzaniga's goal-costing error, he was concerned their efforts would not be rewarded.
“I think we were superior, but Girona played us in circles and made us dizzy. At halftime, we said that if we didn’t press, we were going to suffer. We had to win, and it was very difficult,” Enrique told Movistar Plus.
“It was very difficult. I told Michel that this was worse than giving birth, with all due respect. Winning a match or any title is difficult, but we don’t know the dimension of this competition with this format.
“We are going to have to play matches against teams that have easier schedules than ours. How many points are we going to need? There are many unknowns that need to be cleared up.”
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