Depleted PSG Face Uphill Task to Beat Manchester City in Champions League Return
Paris Saint-Germain face an uphill task in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium next week after a 2-2 draw at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday night.
The French champions were looking to put themselves in a commanding position ahead of the return fixture but instead allowed Manuel Pellegrini’s men to score two potentially decisive away goals.
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Les Parisiens had a chance to go in front after just 14 minutes, but Joe Hart denied Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s penalty after David Luiz had rather theatrically won the spot-kick for his side in an eventful opening 15 minutes for the Brazil international.
Ibrahimovic then spurned a great chance to atone for his penalty miss, firing wildly over when one-on-one with Hart thanks to a sublime Thiago Motta pass.
Laurent Blanc’s men were not taking their chances, and they were made to pay seven minutes before half-time, Kevin De Bruyne scoring after Blaise Matuidi gave the ball away and Luiz produced some slapstick defending.
City’s lead lasted just three minutes, though; a horrendous mix-up between Hart and Fernando gifted Ibrahimovic a goal that he was almost too embarrassed to accept, and it was 1-1 at the break.
PSG grew stronger early in the second half, and it was no surprise when Adrien Rabiot swept home just before the hour mark after Hart had saved an Edinson Cavani header from an Angel Di Maria corner.
However, the hosts shot themselves in the foot once again with captain Thiago Silva and the returning Serge Aurier guilty of gifting Fernandinho his equaliser after 72 minutes.
It was sloppy stuff from the Ligue 1 champions at times, and they know they will have to do much better in Manchester if they are to avoid elimination in the last eight for the fourth consecutive season.
PSG coach Blanc admitted after the final whistle that the result was not what he had hoped for and bemoaned his players’ technical errors.
Le President also added to the bad news that Luiz and Matuidi’s bookings mean they are suspended for the return when he revealed that Marco Verratti and Javier Pastore will not be ready in time for the trip to Etihad Stadium:
"It's not a good result. I don't know if it has to do with nervousness but we made a lot of technical mistakes, especially for City's second goal—and we all know the importance of away goals. Looking at the stats, we played the match we wanted to, but we made mistakes, in part due to City's quality. Zlatan (Ibrahimovic) went through a bit of everything tonight. He missed a penalty, then had a huge chance, and just when you thought it wasn't his night, he scores! It's not the first time we have conceded goals at home—quite the opposite—but we have proven that we can score away too. So if we manage to give the same performance, without committing the same mistakes, we can go through. Tonight's two absentees (Marco Verratti and Javier Pastore) will not be available for the return leg. We dominated yet conceded two goals, and on top of that we'll have two players suspended for the return leg—David Luiz and Blaise Matuidi. But I think it's possible. It'll be complicated, but it's possible.
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To be missing four regular members of Blanc’s starting XI in Manchester makes an already tough task a more mountainous mission. However, the French tactician does still have the quality available to him to overcome such disadvantages.
For a start, Luiz’s absence is manageable. Although the Brazilian’s experience at this stage of the competition is important, his recent poor form has gone on for long enough, and Marquinhos will finally get the chance to come in and replace him.
The younger South American starting over the older one is arguably an improvement and will certainly make PSG more solid at the back than they were in the first leg.
Of the two players who picked up yellow cards on Wednesday, Matuidi will be the bigger miss for the French giants.
Indispensable for Les Parisiens and the French national team, taking the 28-year-old out of Blanc’s starting XI is like taking its heart out and expecting it to function as normal.
Although Matuidi was poor at times in the first leg against City, his absence will leave a gaping hole in the midfield.
Because of that, Blanc will have to decide whether he wants to go for a solid and defensive option in the much-maligned Benjamin Stambouli or a more creative approach with Di Maria dropping back into midfield as he so often did with Real Madrid.
The Argentina international was a spectral presence at times in the Parc des Princes opener, and he will need to influence the game far more at the Etihad Stadium next week. Perhaps a move back into the midfield will involve him more.
Such a tactical change from Blanc would mean that Ibrahimovic and Cavani will almost certainly be joined in attack by Lucas Moura, who started as a substitute in the capital on Wednesday.
Verratti’s absence, more so than Luiz or Matuidi, still hurts PSG most, though. Without the Italy international, the midfield does not look the same, and there is less creativity in the middle of the park.
With Pastore also out injured, Blanc is deprived of his first- and second-choice creators in the central midfield three, and without one of the pair, the work that the likes of Motta, Matuidi and Rabiot do has less impact.
It will not be impossible for PSG to beat City away next week to advance to their first Champions League semi-final since 1994-95, but the absences of Verratti, Matuidi and Pastore—less so the out-of-form Luiz—make an already challenging task that bit more testing.
If the French champions are to make it into the final four, then Blanc will have to earn that spot with his tactical nous by overcoming those three key absences.
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