Two titans of European football collided in the Champions League on Wednesday as Paris Saint-Germain took on Barcelona.
It was a clash that lived up to its billing, pitting the reigning European and French champions against the best of La Liga.
Both sides were dealing with a host of injuries to key players, setting the stage for a pulsating battle. What followed was a thrilling and compelling encounter between two tactical masterminds in Hansi Flick and Luis Enrique. Enrique and PSG came out on top thanks to Goncalo Ramos’ late strike, despite trailing midway through the first half.
In this article, we’ll cover:
How PSG beat the Barcelona press
PSG smartly beat the Barcelona press in wide areas, as they expertly exploited the Blaugrana‘s high line and aggressive harrying. With Marcus Rashford and Lamine Yamal stepping onto their nearby central defenders when the ball went on their side, it consistently left the full-backs, Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, as the free men. PSG used this to their advantage. They consequently drew out Barcelona’s full-backs before bypassing them with balls into the channels.
The chain reaction ensued, as the ball-side Barcelona centre-back had to cover large distances to deal with PSG’s wide forwards. This placed further duress on Barcelona’s extremely high line that now had no spare man.
Moreover, with Barcelona’s midfielders being reluctant to move away from their usual man-marking of their opposite numbers, they couldn’t really provide any help.
The sequence for PSG’s opener offered the finest depiction of this. With Yamal harrying William Pacho, Mendes was subsequently free, which forced Jules Kounde to push up to press him. Eric Garcia was then dragged across to cover Ibrahim Mbaye, and this generated a huge lane for Mendes to burst upfield before calmly setting up Senny Mayulu for a clinical finish.
This goal served as a testament to PSG’s press resistance and use of their wide mechanics to methodically break through Barca’s setup and expose the space behind against an overcommitted and manipulated defensive line.
While the above worked a treat, another theme that arose when Rashford or Yamal pressed the centre-backs, was how Mbaye and Bradley Barcola held the width high to pin the Barca full-backs. This delayed or prevented them from closing Hakimi or Mendes, creating a 4v3 scenario in PSG’s favour to allow them to play out cleanly and progress with ease.
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Yamal given the conditions to shine
Yamal’s wizardry was on full display at the Montjuic Olympic Stadium. He tormented PSG’s defence with a blend of mesmerising dribbles and incisive through balls to constantly wreak havoc down the flank. His impact, however, was amplified by the intelligent movement and support of his Barcelona teammates. Dani Olmo, Ferran Torres and Kounde all played vital roles in creating the conditions for the young star to thrive.
Olmo’s clever decoy runs, which often drew two trackers, effectively bought Yamal extra time to inherit the ball in a forward-facing posture to drive at Mendes one-on-one. With Torres then pinning either one or both PSG centre-backs, who were wary to step out and leave the speed demon room to explore in behind with his crafty darts, this elevated Olmo’s danger and Yamal’s capacity to be isolated.
Kounde’s well-timed underlaps compounded issues for the away side. They pulled Barcola central to further place Yamal in ideal one-on-ones on the wing with acres of space to cut inside in devastating fashion.
On top of that, there were some wonderful third-man combinations involving Olmo, Yamal and Kounde that were a handy source of offensive impetus for the Blaugrana too.
All of the above combined to manufacture promising situations not just for Yamal but also his partners in crime. Their coordinated efforts allowed Yamal and Co. to pose a major nuisance to PSG’s rearguard.
Rashford’s movement wreaks havoc on Zabarnyi
Rashford was a persistent menace with his wicked runs in behind, causing serious conundrums for Illia Zabarnyi in what was one of the game’s most fascinating subplots. The former Bournemouth man was often left isolated and exposed due to Hakimi stepping out to face Gerard Martin. Rashford put Zabarnyi under pressure with his sharp moment and superbly directed bursts.
Rashford’s indented positioning in the left half-space after drifting centrally allowed him to use his pace to stretch the PSG backline and target dangerous gaps in the middle. These were typically heightened by Torres occupying Pacho.
The Englishman routinely operated of the back shoulder of Zabarnyi, timing his blindside runs to perfect. This forced the Ukrainian into difficult situations, with minimal assistance. And he didn’t look comfortable dealing with all that space behind.
When Zabarnyi was drawn forward to engage Rashford wide, it created space in central zones for others to exploit. Pedri capitalised the most, embarking on penetrative surges into these vacated locations.
When combined with his dovetailing with Torres, Rashford’s dynamic movement regularly unbalanced PSG’s stopping structure. As a result, he was able to frequently conjure moments of real threat that demanded constant adjustment from PSG.
Nonetheless, PSG were deserving of their victory after a superior second-half showing. Enrique’s men once again underlined what a force to be reckoned with they are.