Galtier admits PSG may have underestimated their third-tier Coupe de France opponents

Christophe Galtier has conceded that his Paris Saint-Germain players may have underestimated Châteauroux in their Coupe de France clash on Friday.

PSG eventually won the 3-1 draw at Stade Gaston Petit thanks to late goals from Carlos Soler and Juan Bernat, but their third-tier opponents had given them an uphill battle until then.

In the absence of Lionel Messi, Neymar or Kylian Mbappe, PSG relied on 20-year-old Hugo Ekitike to fire them in the lead early on, before Natanael Ntolla equalized before half-time via a diversion on El Chadaille Bitshiabu.

The late pressure finally paid off for Galtier's side, as Soler and Bernat both struck, and the PSG head coach was just happy to be through to the last 32.

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“There is the satisfaction of being qualified,” he said. "Matches like this are difficult. The start was in line with what I expected, with the opener. Afterwards, my team was cut in half and that gave Châteauroux a lot of hope.

"Did we think things were going to be easy? Maybe."

The former Lille and Nice boss made seven changes to the squad that started the 3-1 defeat at Lens last time out, including teenage trio Ismael Gharbi, Bitshiabu and Warren Zaire-Emery, 16 years old.

Although it took the introduction of Sergio Ramos and Fabian Ruiz in place of Bitshiabu and Gharbi just after the hour mark for the visitors to take matters into their own hands, Galtier was pleased with the youngsters' performances, having anticipated a difficult evening with several first-team players missing after the World Cup.

"I was happy with the young players," he said. “They were serious and on the pace. I really liked Ismael in the game. Warren was on a good level. El Chadaille was unhappy [with the goal conceded].

"I expected a complex game with the absence of many players and the different states of form. We will see which ones we will recover for Angers [Wednesday].

"Teams that have had a lot of players at the World Cup are struggling to restart at the start of the year. We will have to quickly refocus on the objectives.”