Damn Barcelona…What Happened?
As much as I would love to say that the embarrassment at the Parc des Princes was a one off, I’d be lying to myself and everyone else. The four goal score line was flattering to us because it could have easily been 8–0. That’s how bad FC Barcelona played against Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg clash of the Champions League Round of 16 tie. As much as I would like to say that the tie is still on because PSG have to come to the Camp Nou and as much as I want to believe in Barça to be the first team to overturn a 4–0 deficit, such a prediction would look crazy, especially because we didn’t even manage to score at least one single, solitary away goal. Not to mention the fact that the tactics PSG displayed aren’t new, we’ve seen them before and Barça manager Luis Enrique still hasn’t figured a solid way out.
PSG came out determined to disrupt our wing play and the lineup Lucho put out made it easier for them to do so. With Messi dropping deeper to facilitate play, the midfielder on his side has to help play by getting forward. André Gomes isn’t that player and a lot of his qualities still need work. He was completely bullied by PSG. In the 22nd minute, Suárez controls a long ball on the run, leaves it to Messi, and continues his run. Messi spots Gomes coming on his left and with three PSG players drawn to Suárez, the space is there for Gomes to get the ball, and have a shot for the equalizer or get it to a trailing Neymar further left. His first touch allows Presnel Kipembe to close him down, his second touch gifts it to Layvin Kurzawa, and when Kurzawa fluffs it, Marquinhos is able to slide it to Kevin Trapp to kill the chance. Minutes later a Barcelona counter attack in the 27th minute, where Neymar does great work to win the ball back in our own half, he gets the ball to Suárez, who touch passes it right back and starts running, drawing a majority of PSG defenders to them. André is charging forward and receives a beautiful pass from Neymar, all he has to do is slide it to the outside of Trapp and the game is equal. He decides to go through the goalkeepers legs and it is easily knocked out by Trapp giving PSG a chance to reset for the corner.
The rest of our midfielders weren’t any good either. While you’d think seeing Iniesta and Busquets means an opportunity for controlling the play, they too were out-hustled, and outworked. On the second PSG goal, either Andres or Sergio could help Messi being hounded by Adrien Rabiot which assisted the turnover to Marco Verratti. Verratti’s only passing option is Julian Draxler who is shadowed by Iniesta. Closing the space and shutting off the opportunity for a counter would be ideal, instead he jogs while Verratti and Draxler one touch pass out of midfield and then Draxler loses him on the way to making it 2–0. In the 55th minute, PSG are in a little bit of trouble trying to play the ball out of the back, Messi is being a nuisance to Rabiot who then gets the ball to Draxler. He momentarily loses the ball thanks to Sergi Roberto intervening, but Blaise Matuidi is there to pick it up. After losing Busquets, he passes back to Kurzawa who then takes the ball up field to Ángel Di María. He has so much time to score because not only are the defenders in front of him giving him space, but Iniesta doesn’t close down, he just jogs. When he finally gets to him, it’s a halfhearted challenge that ADM can easily skip over and pop a shot off. On the fourth goal, Thomas Meunier has all the time in the world, after losing Neymar, to run down the pitch and find Cavani. Iniesta is just jogging behind leisurely. Busquets nowhere to be found to try to quell the fire.
If you’re fresh off of an injury and you don’t feel you’re 100% up for the game, why not tell the manager to select someone else? If the manager knows you’re fresh off of an injury and knows you need a run of games before you’re 100%, why start them? Outside of Neymar, Marc André ter Stegen and Sergi Roberto (at times), everyone on the pitch looked out of place. Why bring in all those transfers in the season if they’re not gonna play big games? The over reliance on the same lineup made it easy for us to be ran at. PSG were faster and more physical, we saw this before the half. Why didn’t Lucho react or change something until after we were down three? Everyone gets a parcel of blame for this game. The team wasn’t up for it and it’s shocking because knowing how hard it’d be for us to win the league and knowing the Copa del Rey isn’t enough for the fans, as well as the team itself, you’d think they’d want to go to Paris and get an away goal at the least.
PSG put out their most attacking, but balanced lineup. Thomas Meunier and Layvin Kurzawa are fullbacks known to get forward for attacking and leave space in behind so Unai Emery put Verratti and Rabiot at CDM for cover. Meanwhile they had Julian Draxler and Ángel Di María on the wings to stretch play and have a go at our fullbacks. Blaise Matuidi was at CAM going at Sergio Busquets, while Edinson Cavani was the lone striker going at our two center backs. PSG were vulnerable at the back and we couldn’t exploit it because we had no midfield presence. They came walking thru and were knocking at our back four time and time again. Their high press made it difficult to play out of because they’d isolate Neymar, who was the man who could constantly bail us out when pressured. We settled into the game by the fourth goal, and by that time it was too little too late. All the energy we spent defending took the little extra something you need to put on the ball out of our game, as shown by Umtiti’s corner header. Now PSG will come to the Camp Nou, with Serge Aurier, Thiago Silva and Thiago Motta, so you have to choose which PSG you’ll prepare for. Either way, it’s an insanely high mountain to climb. Had it been 2–0, 2–1, 3–0, or 3–1, I could believe in an AC Milan style ‘remuntada’, but this is just too much to overcome, even for the best team in the world.
The reaction of the team after the game really says it all. Luis Enrique won’t be returning after this season. The questions are now: “How will the team react the rest of the year?” and “Will Lucho leave on good terms?” Lucho’s stubbornness has led to the predicament they’re in now. Stubbornness in team selection, stubbornness in tactics, stubbornness in relating to the fans, and stubbornness in dealing with the media. It’s up to him to leave something, if anything for the next manager to build on for next season. The optimist in me says he can and will, but the realist in me can’t ignore the trends and knows it might only get worse before it gets better.
