The comeback was completed but how did Barca do it?
At the start of Proceedings Barcelona goal was to try and CONTAIN PSG off the ball , they were zonal and stayed compact throughout . The shape was looking close to a 4-4-2.
In the wide zones Yamal & Raphinha will drop deep to assist the full backs, while Roberto & De Jong will shift across to assist too.
This meant Barca can’t be out ran in the wide zones because they had the numerical advantage & the half spaces were covered by the midfielders. Its unusual of Cancelo not going forward, probably an instruction given to him by the coach XAVI so as not to be outrun by DEMEBELE on the right wing as we all know he get pace and the ability to take on.
1-0
CUBARSI, the build of the first goal started from this 17yrs old la masia graduate.
PSG were on the move and the press was on Cubarsi. He received with a wrong shape , psg used this as a trigger not knowing that the lad used it to BAIT the press.
PSG fell for this , the SPACE opened up and Lewandowski identified this and made his moves
Cubarsi bypassed the press by playing a line breaking pass into the space he created thanks to his baiting and lewandowski moving there picked the ball and turned fantastically.
Under intense pressure, Lewy controlled the ball and drives with it and played it out to Yamal . Whose cross caused chaos and Raph was there to mop up in the end. This was a brilliant team moved from start to finish.
SECOND HALF TIME
Barcelona were too relaxed coming from half time. They conceded 2goals within 8mins of the 2nd half time.
This goal came as a result of Barcelona not being able to defend the half spaces.
The run from vitinha was excellent and he finished brilliantly in the end.
Scoreline
Psg 2
Barcelona 1
This is where managers earn their money, XAVI saw that the control was gone and we lacked composure . He made excellent changes that impacted the game bringing in Pedri for Roberto in 61mins.
Felix’s hold up play and dazzle helped Barcelona a lot in escaping PSG’s press but the key man here was Pedri.He brought back the control we needed in the middle of the pack , as soon as he came on he gave a brilliant up through ball for the equaliser. Pedri is a genius and the reason is , when Barcelona won the ball thanks to their very aggressive pressing.
I will suggest you go rewatch the goal so you see that in a single moment Pedri did 3 actions . He wasn’t quick in doing it , it all happened in his own tempo that is why he is a genius 👏
Also credit to Raphinha making a cleaver run. Raphinha made it 2-2 within 1min of Pedri coming into the game.
Xavi once again concluded he has to remove half fit de Jong and bring in christenson for more balance CDM role. He did that in 75mins of the game.
2mins into Christenson coming in, the birthday boy scored from a set piece played by Gundogan 👏
77mins
Psg 2
Barcelona 3
Kudos to the genius COACH XAVI as he got his substitution right that night.
We want more from him henceforth
The End.
Thanks 👏
All images are mine