Paris Saint-Germain – Olympique Lyonnais: Dominant PSG Despite Inexplicable Twenty Minute Crisis (4-2)

PSG managed to dominate Lyon in the last serious clash on the road to the Champions League battle with Dortmund. Comfortably leading 3-0 until the 52nd minute, Lyon’s first goal created a moment of fury that PSG had trouble dealing with, before regaining their senses. 

Tactical analysis and match report by Simon Piotr. 

Still without Neymar, who was left out of the squad to recover from his rib cage injury, Tuchel unsurprisingly chose to maintain the 4-4-2 system the team has been playing in for months now. The lineup was the same as the previous game, with the exception of Draxler replacing Sarabia as left midfielder. Other than that, we saw the regular starters with Kylian Mbappé and Icardi upfront, Ángel Di María as right midfielder, Marco Verratti and Idrissa Gueye in midfield.

Lyon came to the Parc des Princes in a pretty poor shape, after a somewhat negative spell of results. Indeed, having lost to Nice and drawn against Amiens on a sad 0-0 the weeks before, Lyon were in the ninth position on the table before that Sunday night clash. The second biggest club in the country needed a reaction to compete against the French leaders. Rudi Garcia chose to organize his team in a 4-2-3-1 system with the sixteen-year-old youngster Rayan Cherki starting as right winger, Martin Terrier on the left, and Houssem Aouar as the number ten behind the striker Moussa Dembélé. 

PSG’s domination through Di María

In the first few minutes, Lyon showed some will to intimidate through pressing - which also led to them having the first shot . . .