Paris Saint-Germain booked their place in the Champions League final thanks to their 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich.
The defending champions took the tie 6-5 on aggregate and will now face Arsenal at the end of the month.
Luis Enrique’s men showed a different side to their game at the Allianz Arena, with just 34.4% possession and fewer shots than Bayern. But what they did show was their willingness to fight for each other. The players tracked their men across the pitch with intent, bailing out their teammates with hard work, while showing their grit and determination to see the game out under pressure from one of the best teams in Europe.
In this article, we’ll cover
PSG’s left-sided overloads
PSG’s frontline rotates caused Bayern Munich some issues in the first leg. Desire Doue, Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia interchanged positions to drag the Bayern backline out of position.
This was seen for PSG’s opening goal in the first leg, as Doue drifted to the left, forcing Dayot Upamecano to switch markers and follow him. This left space for Kvaratskhelia to run in behind right-back Josip Stanisic, with the Georgian getting close to the box one-on-one, cutting inside and curling the ball into the far corner.
And Enrique set his side up to seek those advantages at the Allianz Arena. Doue overloaded the left alongside Kvaratskhelia on a number of occasions throughout the first half.
PSG opened the scoring just two minutes into the second leg, with another move down their left. Upamecano was dragged out of position, with the space behind Konrad Laimer at right-back exploited.
Another key detail of that goal was the rotation between Dembele — who drifted out to the right — and Doue, who dropped deep but stayed more central. This dragged Jonathan Tah out of position, leaving a bigger distance between the centre-backs to cover Kvaratskhelia’s run.
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Bayern’s centre-clearing tactic
Vincent Kompany tried to manipulate and exploit PSG’s man-to-man pressing scheme in a different way, similar to the first game. Bayern attracted the high press, pinning the backline and were more direct with their access to the space between those two units.
Bayern dropped into a 4-2 base shape to build up, which saw the two PSG wingers jump onto the Die Roten‘s centre-backs. Dembele dropped to cover Aleksandar Pavlovic, Vitinha followed Joshua Kimmich, Warren Zaire-Emery jumped from right-back to track Stanisic and Fabian Ruiz shifted over from a midfield area to cover Laimer.
At the top end of the pitch, Bayern’s front four pinned Marquinhos, with Joao Neves dropping from midfield to cover Jamal Musiala, Willian Pacho and Nuno Mendes. This created a chasm between the two pressing units.
Bayern looked to access this zone in a variety of ways. Either by pushing one of their midfielders forward to receive in a one-on-one scenario in that area and carry forwards. Or by going long into the front four, and looking to arrive to win the second balls through the full-backs and midfielders.
Lastly, Harry Kane and Musiala timed their drops to gain separation from their marker, receiving in this open space. They had the time to take their first touch into that large space and then manipulate their markers, who followed them tightly.
PSG’s defensive side
Bayern took control of the game with 65.6% possession, with ideas to manipulate PSG’s man-to-man pressure. But Enrique’s men showed another side to their game, defending in multiple ways to see out the win and reach the final.
As previously mentioned PSG had their man-to-man references across the pitch. This allowed them to go from a more retreated shape into an intense press with ease, as each player stuck with their assignment regardless of where they went.
This included Neves tracking Musiala into the channels, midfield areas and running into centre-forward positions. Dembele also followed Pavlovic if he forayed further forward looking to run off the back of the Ballon D’or winner.
When Bayern Munich did manage to have sustained pressure inside the PSG half, the French side would collapse into a back five, even back six at times. It allowed them to cover all lanes and also made sure they stuck with their runners.
Whether it was last-ditch blocks, doubling up on the wide men, making well-timed clearances or even just putting the opponent under enough pressure to skew their action. PSG defended with intent from the very first minute, deserving every bit of their 6-5 victory over two legs.