Liverpool – Paris Saint-Germain: Enrique Withdraws Maximum Winnings From The Slot Machine (0-1, 1-4 After Penalties)
Over three hours of football could not split the league leaders of England and France, only for an Italian to make all the difference. Gianluigi Donnarumma denied two penalties as Paris Saint-Germain stormed through, after a highly competitive second leg that had different states than the first.
Tactical analysis and match report by Joel Parker.
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Come May, there will be league title processions on Merseyside and in Paris. But these are two teams that yearn for more than just domestic pleasure.
The quality of PSG and Liverpool was well-established in the first leg. Twenty-seven shots were fired towards Alisson’s goal, but the Brazilian kept the hosts at bay. After long spells of control from Luis Enrique, and his team, it was a long ball controlled by Darwin Núñez that created Liverpool’s best attack, before Harvey Elliott scored with a few minutes left to take a 1-0 lead back to Anfield. Could PSG break through the Brazilian barrier this time?
Enrique could still carry confidence from the performance they put on at Parc des Princes. Liverpool turned to their transitional play and PSG’s defensive line showed that they were capable of keeping a rampant attack quiet for most of the match. The tilted three of Marquinhos, Willian Pacho and Nuno Mendes had strong games when facing these transitions, but the one time the right side was breached, Arne Slot’s team capitalised. Nevertheless, Liverpool was not going to gift PSG the crazy amount of control they had in the first leg, but maybe PSG’s attack could benefit from attacking the opposition defense with more space at their disposal.
Neither Slot nor Enrique made a single change from their first-leg selections. At the weekend, Liverpool faced a scare by being a goal down to rock-bottom Southampton at half-time, but they overpowered them for a 3-1 victory. Alexis Mac Allister, Andrew Robertson and Diogo Jota were all rested for that game.
PSG also followed their opponent’s footsteps with a victory over Stade Rennais. Enrique made a lot more rotation to his team than Slot: Willian Pacho, João Neves and Bradley Barcola were the only players to feature in all three games. Ousmane Dembélé was brought on for the last twenty-five minutes of that match, scoring twice in stoppage time.
Revamping the momentum
It is no secret that Anfield sends a shock to the system to most European teams that visit, which is set by their pressing that encourages the chaos. In their first situation of the game, Pacho passed to Marquinhos and Achraf Hakimi was jumped on by Robertson. Vitinha moved laterally to support, doubled up by Jota tracking his movement and Luis Díaz dropping after his out-to-in press. The pass was aimed forward and intercepted by Virgil van Dijk, the ideal start for Liverpool to overwhelm their opponents.
PSG had not settled into their rondos yet, so Liverpool asserted control from the direct pass from center-back to the runner against the defensive line. Three minutes in, a throw-in went back to Van Dijk, whose high pass caught Marquinhos and Pacho on different levels. Dominik Szoboszlai received and poked the ball back to Mac Allister, who burst past Vitinha and squared a pass back across the goal. Mohamed Salah lurked at the back post, but a phenomenal block by Nuno Mendes denied the Egyptian from close range.
Liverpool was capable of entering the final third as PSG’s medium block left a lot of space for both Salah and Díaz to entice the fullback without defensive support. In their 4-1-4-1 shape, PSG mirrored how their opponent was building with the ball, but Ousmane Dembélé was left against both center-backs, leaving a +1 in their defensive line. However, Fabián Ruiz and Neves were higher than Vitinha (man-to-man marking the Liverpool midfield) so when the wingers hugged the touchline, the fullbacks were gambling with leaving an area behind them to utilize.
5th minute: Buildup to a chance for Salah. After Alisson passed the ball out, Alexander-Arnold was able to take it up towards the halfway line before PSG approached in their 4-1-4-1 shape. In the process, a lot of space was given to Salah to receive and nutmeg Mendes before charging towards the box. After he attempted to slide Jota through, Salah had a shot of his own that went wide.
Although Liverpool appeared to have established their momentum, PSG had already demonstrated that they could still circulate past the high block. During this period, Enrique’s team did have several passes going out for a throw, but the positional rotations were already in place. Enrique had made a couple of tweaks from the first leg: Barcola was actively on the right side of the field, to begin with, whilst Dembélé was a lot more active in dropping into deeper lines from the striker position, often dropping into deep halfspace positions on the far side of the ball.
Eleven minutes in and PSG snapped into action. After a long pass up from Van Dijk, Ruiz passed back towards Pacho and Mendes, who had dropped a lot deeper to stretch the play. As Liverpool attempted to counterpress back up the field, Vitinha made a curved run towards the left as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia dropped to the ball. In the process, Ibrahima Konaté followed the run and space was available for Dembélé to receive and turn. His through ball found Barcola, a low cross created a messy situation and rolled perfectly for Dembélé to tap in with Alisson out of the equation.
11th minute: Buildup to Dembélé’s goal. As play was brought from right to left, Liverpool tried to counterpress up the field as PSG dropped their defensive line to increase the space. As Pacho passed to Mendes, Vitinha started to make his run towards the channel which dragged both Szoboszlai and Konaté away. The pass to Dembélé was connected and Barcola made his wide run against Robertson for the next phase of the attack.
Enrique’s circuit finds faults in the press
Another noticeable change from the first leg was Liverpool’s defensive shape acting in a flat 4-2-4 formation. This still varied in Szoboszlai’s positioning, as he situationally tracked Vitinha/Neves, but the frontline was willing to engage a lot more than in Paris. The cues in the press remained the same, Salah and Díaz made out-to-in movements to encourage PSG to play in on themselves where a bank of four narrow Liverpool players would congest the space and create turnovers.
However, this fell into massive problems. Firstly, Marquinhos and Pacho were comfortable letting the ball run deeper so the space increased for Jota to jump into. As Díaz made his run, the area to play the pass to Hakimi opened, so Vitinha or Neves was able to play the wall pass straight to the fullback. As Hakimi received, Robertson jumped and Barcola moved into a position to play a vertical pass back towards the center, with runners now able to move into space outside of Van Dijk.
18th minute: PSG build through Liverpool’s high block. As Díaz tried to press from out-to-in, Hakimi became free on the right side and Vitinha made a wall pass after Marquinhos had split the lines. Robertson jumped towards Hakimi, but further space was available for PSG to make adaptations.
On the right side, the press was still unequipped. Pacho performed a press-baiting system of his own when in possession, so Salah often stepped in but tried to occupy the lateral pass to Mendes when PSG moved in their tilted three. The problem for Salah was that he had even less support than Díaz had on the other side because Szoboszlai tracked one of the midfielders and Trent Alexander-Arnold was fixed on Kvaratskhelia, so Pacho could just shift his position and Mendes could move out of the tilted position to make a passing lane that went behind Salah.
Between situations, Liverpool’s intensity and jumping onto Gianluigi Donnarumma did create some difficulties. However, the positional rotations between Vitinha and Neves offered a lot of protection and PSG could alter their right side in plenty of ways to create that extra player behind Liverpool’s front four. Hakimi also took up slightly inverted roles in possession, as Barcola dropped on the touchline and this created room for Neves to escape Szoboszlai and jump behind Robertson because Hakimi showed for the ball and PSG’s circuit has the technical ability to pull these passes off.
When Liverpool tried to sit off in their more passive 4-2-4 medium block, problems still showed because PSG’s buildup was capable of putting the midfield on different levels and space opened for Dembélé to drop into. As one midfielder moved in, another pushed out to not bunch up one position but keep the distance between Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch. As a result, the midfield would lose its compactness and Dembélé dropped into positions so that he could receive.
23rd minute: PSG build through Liverpool’s medium block. Position rotations between Vitinha and Ruiz not only saw the Liverpool frontline bunch but dragged Gravenberch onto a different level to Mac Allister. As this happened, Dembélé moved out of the forward line to make a passing lane.
Their fluidity opened up spaces inside of the Liverpool set-up, and PSG was able to attack with a lot more transitions than in the first leg. A four-versus-three saw Kvaratskhelia poke a pass through to Barcola, but the Frenchman’s touch took him laterally and Alisson shut off the angle. Another transition saw the Georgian play a pass-through to Dembélé, with Konaté out of the picture. Through on goal, his heavy touch rolled straight to the Brazilian goalkeeper and another chance was spoiled. Kvaratskhelia would have a shot of his own, Barcola and Neves connected on the one-two after Hakimi moved into an inverted position and the semi-transition was on. Dembélé’s cutback was slightly off-angle, but it required a Gravenberch intervention and the deflected shot span just over the crossbar. PSG had the better of the opportunities, but transitions forward were not the cleanest and Liverpool’s backpedalling defensive line has remained a strong asset in their off-ball arrangement.
The Kop comes calling
From minutes forty-seven to eighty-seven, PSG would not record another shot as Liverpool attacked with more consistency. The possession spells remained equal throughout, but it was Slot’s team that was engaging more in final third entries as PSG were willing to sit deeper without a high block. Against the 4-1-4-1 system, the triangle between Robertson, Díaz and Jota, who situationally moved to the side, was the most reliable source to move possession to as the pass from Van Dijk to the left-back was a lot more accessible than Alexander-Arnold inverting in the second line.
On the ball, Díaz and Jota interchanged positions with Hakimi being very aggressive towards the deeper receiver, whilst the attacker further up the chain would be pinned onto Marquinhos. As a result, Liverpool had an area they could move the ball into and when Mac Allister shifted onto the same channel, it meant that Slot’s team had a free man between Hakimi and Marquinhos to launch an attack. Six minutes into the second half, Liverpool thought they had their goal only for Díaz to have moved into an offside position in the buildup to Alexander-Arnold squaring back across the goal for Szoboszlai.
52nd minute: Offside goal from Liverpool. As Mac Allister kept Barcola slightly more central, Robertson could receive from Van Dijk with Hakimi jumping towards him. As a result, Jota became free to receive between Hakimi and Marquinhos but Díaz just mistimed his run further up the chain.
Of course, Liverpool could launch transitions of their own and Díaz remained the most active attacker in these situations. However, PSG’s rest defense remained very strong when it needed to be and the counters that Liverpool produced did not stretch Pacho, Marquinhos, Mendes/Vitinha enough to directly attack the center of the goal. The counters that PSG produced also remained quite messy or led back to them recirculating the ball, so the match went through a period with a lot of fast movements but little shot quality. Enrique made an identical substitution to the first leg: replacing Barcola with Désiré Doué, but his team where still not getting chances at the other end of the field.
Incredibly, the substitution that got the most attacking output for Liverpool would be Jarell Quansah replacing the injured Alexander-Arnold. Slot’s team had already tested from a few corners around the hour mark but from an indirect set-piece, Quansah headed onto the foot of the far post and just missed out on Mac Allister charging towards goals in the process.
PSG persevere to find late energy
With a few minutes left, PSG finally broke their shot drought when their rotations came to fruition. Ruiz moved into the single pivot spot and Doué turned past Robertson to lead a charge forward. Once again, the build was messy but Vitinha found Dembélé and Kvaratskhelia had possession in his prime position; on the left, open with his right foot. His shot aimed for the far post but went over the crossbar.
Enrique took off Marquinhos for fellow countryman Lucas Beraldo, just before the full-time whistle as the game moved into an extra half hour. From a short corner, Doué crossed and Beraldo rose highest, but his header bounced agonizingly close from the bottom of the goal. Ultimately, Enrique’s substitutions played a much more positive role in the proceedings and the PSG attack dominated extra-time. Doué had the next attempt after he was able to switch to Kvaratskhelia, a blocked shot led to Hakimi passing back to Doué. He squirmed through the bodies but his shot found a similar location to Beraldo’s header a minute earlier.
By this point, Warren Zaïre-Emery had replaced Ruiz and PSG maintained its ability to circulate as Liverpool sat in a deeper block. The second half of extra time had Enrique’s team in complete control. Doué was now positioned on the left as Kang-in Lee moved onto the right. The next big chance came when Neves poked a pass to Vitinha and the lane up to Dembélé remained open for an extended period. Dembélé was connected, between Quansah and Konaté, who forced an excellent save out of Alisson. Overall, PSG created eleven chances in extra time, as Enrique’s substitutions rebuilt the momentum that they had established earlier in the game (but with a lot more control.) Despite these efforts, penalties would be required to separate.
Gigi digs the grave
Donnarumma had been under the cosh for most of the evening, his distribution and awkward moments during crosses leaving PSG in some twitchy situations. However, going into a penalty shootout, this was a goalkeeper with a lot of credit in the bank: most notably, saving two penalties against England in the final of EURO 2021.
After Vitinha, Salah and Gonçalo Ramos converted, it was time for Darwin Núñez to step up, but Donnarumma denied him with an excellent save to his left side. Curtis Jones would be the next to take, but the Italian dived low to his right and PSG where in the ultimate position. After Dembélé had already scored, Doué fired into the top left to send PSG through to the quarter-finals.
Takeaways
An excellent tie between two teams worthy of going the distance. Regardless of the result, Liverpool and PSG would have felt like they had done enough to progress, but after creating 4.88 Expected Goals between both legs, Luis Enrique’s team could have had this tie buried much earlier. Either Club Brugge or Aston Villa will face PSG in the quarter-finals, a team that Slot described as the “most complete team we have faced” before the second leg. He is not wrong about PSG’s perfections.
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