Where Paris Saint-Germain Must Improve to Win Champions League

Sometimes in life, the football gods are against you. On Tuesday night, anyone who watched Paris Saint-Germain narrowly beat Apoel Nicosia would have noticed the other seven games serve up 39 goals to PSG’s one. At times it was hard to stomach.

Only the most ardent of Ligue 1 and PSG fans would have stuck with the game to the end, and what would have been most apparent is PSG’s struggles to break down a well-organised side away from home. Something that neither Shakhtar Donetsk nor Bayern Munich had any problem with on Tuesday.

The three points that Edinson Cavani’s late goal secured kept PSG on top of Group F, just ahead of Barcelona. However, if PSG are to become serious contenders for this season’s trophy, they need to make huge strides towards improvement. The main problem Laurent Blanc's side has is pace.

Petros Karadjias/Associated Press

The issue isn’t just individual pace around the squad, but also the pace at which PSG take on their opponents.

When playing without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, there is no one in the current PSG squad that can, with the same effect, create chances from almost nothing. During his first season in Paris, quite often a single moment of Zlatan magic would lift PSG past tough opposition.

The sign of a good team is to find a way to victory without playing well, but that can only take you so far. It may be good enough for Ligue 1, but it will not suffice in Europe’s premier cup competition.

On Tuesday, the only player to provide any real speed or quickness to the PSG attack was Brazilian winger Lucas Moura. The 22-year-old is blessed with lightning pace, the sort of quickness that can be a constant problem to the opposition.

However, to get the best out of Lucas, you need to provide him with space in behind the defence to utilise his abilities.

This is where PSG massively fall down. Far too often on Tuesday night, the build-up play from the away side was way too slow and took away any chance of catching out the Apoel defence.

Petros Karadjias/Associated Press

Giorgos Donis’ side were keen to have men behind the ball, keep the back four tight and frustrate the Parisians, and for the majority of the game it worked. Thiago Motta, Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi all failed to push the tempo of the game in PSG’s favour. It was all too pedestrian and calculated.

It is a problem that has plagued Blanc’s side in the league for too long. If they can’t find a way to continually play at the pace they showed against Barcelona, they are going to struggle to compete with the bigger sides in the competition.

Last season, one of PSG’s biggest weapons in the Champions League was the play between left-back Maxwell and Argentine winger Ezequiel Lavezzi. The Brazilian would look to release the former Napoli man at every opportunity, and they had great success with it.

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Blanc has not been able to create the same partnership down the right with Gregory van der Wiel and Lucas, but if they can get Lavezzi back fit and have that option down both flanks, it would make PSG a more unpredictable opponent.

Defensively, the duo of Thiago Silva and David Luiz is good enough to win the Champions League, but both defenders on their day will always give you at least one or two chances to catch them cold. PSG needed Luiz to clear a header off the line on Tuesday night, the score was 0-0 at that point, and it could have been a huge turning point.

If PSG showed more pace in attack and found an easier route to goal, it wouldn’t put as much pressure on the back four to keep as many clean sheets. Right now, Blanc needs the defence to play at their absolute best to give PSG the base to win these tough away games.

Against the likes of Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Chelsea, they won’t be able to ride the same luck.

If PSG can increase the pace of their attack and get the best out of the abilities of Lucas Moura, they will go far this season. If they continue to play like they did away at Apoel, it could become a difficult season in the Champions League for Laurent Blanc.