It is becoming an all too familiar story for Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. The Qatari owned French club has spent hundreds of million of dollars on new players over the last three or so years, yet they cannot breakthrough into the elite of European football. After crashing out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage in each of the previous two seasons, this was the year when PSG were to take Europe by storm. Instead they face the almost impossible, having to come back from a 3-1 deficit at the Camp Nou in the second leg of their quarter-final against a rampant Barcelona team which looks like it can score at will.
So where did it all go wrong this time?
Squad depth
When PSG spent almost $75 million on Chelsea defender David Luiz last summer it left many people scratching their heads. Luiz is a boom or bust defender of the highest order. Some days he can be simply sensational in the way he reads the game and snuffs out danger before it even occurs, while on others he can have the proverbial nightmare for a full 90 minutes. He showed both sides of his character early on Wednesday night as he smartly intercepted a through ball intended for Luis Suarez before needlessly trying to take on the striker deep in his own half, losing the ball and gifting Suarez a shot on goal.
Luiz is simply not a $75 million player. In spending this money on just one individual PSG were left hopelessly exposed by the suspensions and injuries to the likes of Thiago Silva, Marco Verratti and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. To put this in better perspective Chelsea basically used the money they received in the Luiz deal to fund their own signings of Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas. The Qatari consortium which owns PSG has plenty of money. This summer instead of one big signing they must go out and fill the holes in the squad.
No pressure in midfield
Playing against Barcelona is as intimidating a task as you will find in world soccer. The tiki taka style of short passing and movement off the ball is well documented, but you just cannot sit back and allow the Catalan side to completely control the flow of the game. With both sides playing three in midfield the onus was on the home side to press the ball and stop the likes of Andres Iniesta controlling the tempo. Instead PSG sat off of Barca and let them have the ball in midfield choosing to only stop the attacks when they reached the final third. The result of this tactic was 63% of the possession for Barcelona and a day of chasing shadows for PSG.
Shockingly ineffective counter attacks
Whatever you think of PSG’s decision to concede the possession in a home game against the best passing team in the world there was at least a theory behind it. With their 4-3-3 formation set up, Les Parisiens were going to hit Barca quickly and deadly on the counter attack. Unfortunately for PSG their counter attacking play on Wednesday was some of the worst every witnessed at this level of soccer.
Without talismanic striker Ibrahimovic off the field it was left to Edinson Cavani to lead through the middle with Javier Pastore on the left and Ezequiel Lavezzi coming in from the right. Cavani is another player who just does not live up to his price tag ($82 million) in big games. His movement is languid and ineffective and in this game his first touch killed almost every promising counter PSG put together. The first touch was also a problem for Pastore, while Lavezzi seemed to be playing at a slower tempo than the rest of the team. In truth it was only the running of Blaise Matuidi from midfield which was pushing the French side forward.
Brilliant Barca front three
The Barcelona front three is the envy of all in world football, with the possible exception of Real Madrid, and the trio was in rare form on Wednesday night. In the first half it was Neymar taking the fight to PSG as he had his way with the defense. Neymar is excellent at drifting into the space on the left-wing between the fullback and center back, the old inside left position if you will, and in the opening 45 minutes in particular neither Marquinhos or Gregory can der Wiel could handle him.
In the second half PSG made a tactical change, trying to push forward a little more to get a goal back. The problem is that Barca were leaving the trio of Neymar, Suarez and Leo Messi up-field, trusting seven defenders to keep PSG out and using the range of passing of substitute Xavi to quickly turn defense into attack. When Suarez plays like he did in the second half he is virtually unstoppable, but PSG could certainly have done more to try to contain him than they did over the games final 30 minutes or so.