Efficient Edinson Cavani Performance Helps PSG Past Nantes in Coupe de France

Paris Saint-Germain are into the Coupe de France quarterfinals after a straightforward 2-0 win over FC Nantes at Parc des Princes on Wednesday.

Coach Laurent Blanc rang the changes for Les Parisiens, but first-half goals from Edinson Cavani and Yohan Cabaye were enough to secure the French champions’ safe passage into the last eight, where they will face AS Monaco.

Remy de la Mauviniere/Associated Press

With an important Ligue 1 clash against in-form Stade Malherbe Caen coming up in the capital on Saturday before the visit of Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League next week, it was important that PSG made light work of Les Canaris so that they did not expend more energy than was absolutely necessary.

After overpowering Michel Der Zakarian’s Nantes in the opening 45 minutes, all the hosts had to do was kill the game in the second. Blanc’s men did that pretty swiftly, with the game as good as over less than 10 minutes after the break.

Despite the plethora of changes made by Le President for the match after the 1-1 draw away at Olympique Lyonnais in Le Championnat, PSG still picked up where they left off at Stade Gerland.

The capital outfit were confident, comfortable in possession and looked purposeful from the early stages of the game. Nantes made it a lively opening to the encounter, but once Cavani scored with an opportunistic header from a David Luiz free-kick, there was only going to be one winner in this tie.

Substitute Blaise Matuidi summed up the confidence PSG are currently enjoying when he spoke with the press shortly after the final whistle.

"

We're still in the running in four competitions, so things are going pretty well. Since the beginning of January, we've been on a roll. We're playing good football—but we can still do better—and our spirits are high. We've shown recently that it's tough to play PSG. We're playing well again, holding onto possession and putting our attacking phases together well. Other teams watch our matches know that it's not going to be easy to play us.

"

Although there were a number of excellent performances from PSG’s fringe contingent on the night, it is only fair to focus on opening scorer Cavani after the deserved criticism he got for a poor performance in Lyon last Sunday.

"

3 - @ECavaniOfficial has scored in 3 of his 4 Coupe de France games, finding the net in each of his last 3. Habit.

— OptaJean (@OptaJean) February 11, 2015"

The Uruguayan was clearly lacking confidence in the clash with Les Gones and missed a hatful of good chances that, even last season, you would have expected him to score. However, he failed to take any of his opportunities and was denied by the excellent Anthony Lopes at times as well.

Blanc decided to rest star man Zlatan Ibrahimovic in order to prepare for Chelsea and to, in theory, ensure that no points are dropped against a Caen side flying in Ligue 1 right now.

Francois Mori/Associated Press

The decision was well-calculated, as the Frenchman would also have known that the best way to boost Cavani’s flagging confidence ahead of both games would have been to start him up top on his own.

Opting to rest the Swede in favour of El Matador worked and produced an efficient display from the Uruguayan. Cavani scored his third goal in four Coupe de France appearances overall, finding the back of the net with a predatory headed effort after 19 minutes.

It was one of the few chances that the South American had on the night, but it did prove one thing: Cavani is a different player when deployed in the middle and at the points of the attack, rather than out wide with defensive duties to fulfil.

When played to the left of Ibrahimovic, there is theoretically space in the middle for Cavani to move into when his strike partner drops back into midfield to collect the ball.

Christophe Ena/Associated Press

However, in reality, this does not work because Blanc is also asking the Uruguayan to perform defensive tasks. That means he is already at a disadvantage when he tries to exploit the space created by Zlatan’s habit of dropping deep.

In the role that he occupied against Nantes, Cavani is more dangerous and, crucially, more confident.

Blanc needs to find a way to reignite Ibrahimovic’s creative side, because this season it has not been at the same level it has been in recent campaigns. Even though it has been an injury-hit term for the PSG No. 10, two assists across all competitions at this stage do not compare to nine in both of his first two seasons.

With the Swede laying on as many chances as he gets himself, Cavani was allowed to thrive in the first half of last term.

Michel Euler/Associated Press

But now, with Zlatan playing the role of provider less often, Cavani’s chances to score are limited, and therefore there is greater pressure on him to take them, while harsher criticism comes when they are passed up.

Cavani's goal against Nantes means that overall, he and Ibrahimovic are now equal in the number of goals scored across all competitions so far this season: Both have scored 16 times.

El Matador regularly gets branded a flop at PSG, yet the No. 9’s scoring record is still reasonably good, although still below what is expected of a €64 million striker. If Cavani can use this confidence boost to now spur him on to strong performances against Caen and then Chelsea, perhaps the former SSC Napoli man will be able to respond to his vociferous critics.