Zlatan Ibrahimovic Leads Insipid PSG Past Bastia Ahead of Real Madrid Showdown
It was not pretty, but Paris Saint-Germain beat SC Bastia 2-0 on Saturday to maintain their five-point lead at the top of Ligue 1.
Laurent Blanc’s men were not impressive in their victory, but a pair of goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic was enough to secure a barely-merited fourth straight success in Le Championnat at Stade de Furiani.
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As is often the case following an international break or prior to a prestigious game in the UEFA Champions League, of which this fixture ticked both boxes, the French champions did the absolute bare minimum to get through the match and rarely moved out of third gear.
Weakened for the trip to Corsica by a number of absences, it was unlikely Les Parisiens would produce a dominant display. However, the feeble offering that materialised still fell far below matching the potential of the starting XI sent out by Blanc.
In a storyline that has become extremely familiar to PSG and their supporters over the years, certainly in domestic games, the talismanic Ibrahimovic was the difference between a win and dropped points.
Despite playing, and scoring, in both of Sweden’s 2016 UEFA European Championship qualifiers over the recent international break, the 34-year-old was started in Bastia and looked sluggish in the first half.
Zlatan’s teammates were equally as stagnant, with the Ligue 1 leaders failing to register a single shot on target in the opening half of action.
The second 45 brought an improvement, though, and it was the PSG No. 10 at the sharp end of both of the moments that ultimately made the difference.
For Ibrahimovic’s opener, Javier Pastore—deployed as part of an ill-conceived midfield three—came to life to pick out a beautiful pass for Edinson Cavani. El Matador was offside, but the flag was not raised and the Uruguayan was able to pass to his strike partner for an easy finish past the despairing Mathieu Peybernes.
Zlatan’s second was scored from a similar position, although it was slightly more challenging than his first. Serge Aurier marauded forward from right-back and the Ivorian cut the ball back to find Ibrahimovic lurking, the Scandinavian star tucked the ball home with little fuss.
Speaking with PSG.fr after the final whistle, the match winner was pleased with his brace but more relieved the team successfully navigated a potential upset.
"It's a good result because we won a very difficult match. We all remember our bad performance here last season (loss 4-2), but today we got the three points and keep moving forward in our quest to win trophies. Wednesday's match against Real Madrid will be completely different. We'll be playing at home, against one of the best teams in the world. It will be nice. Now we can focus on that match - we're ready.
"
Aside from the two moments that produced the goals, PSG displayed little quality against Bastia.
However, they came away from a difficult away fixture with a win, so Blanc was happy with the result, as he admitted to PSG.fr. Le President and his players can now turn their attention to the visit of Real Madrid in the champions League next week.
"We were expecting a difficult match and it was. It's always difficult away to Bastia. I told my players they would have to be patient and play to our strengths, our technical quality, our philosophy. We had to keep plugging away, pass the ball better. In the end, Bastia started to tire. The main thing is to keep winning our matches because the league is a marathon.
"
Los Blancos are up next for PSG and the French champions will have to be much, much better if they want to pose Rafael Benitez’s men problems.
Considering the usual disparity between Les Parisiens’ domestic displays and their continental ones, though, there should be no danger of the capital club not being at their best for the visit of the Spanish giants.
The returns of the likes of Angel Di Maria and Blaise Matuidi, as well as the potential inclusions of Marco Verratti, Kevin Trapp and David Luiz, should ensure Blanc gets a much-improved showing from his players next Wednesday.
