Look at the Premier League and you will see that Chelsea have conceded 41 goals, Liverpool 42 and Manchester United 43, while Manchester City have conceded 28 and Arsenal, with David Raya in goal, only 24. The difference in the defensive level of each team is enormous.
PSG against Liverpool achieved a tight result that, by their merits as a unit and as a team, found the goal because they have players who seek to demolish the opposition relentlessly. Luis Enrique always wants to win and signs explosive, dynamic players with a nose for goal. In the end, last season, they were crowned as a deserving and authentic Champions League winners and nobody gave them anything. PSG lifted the trophy for the very first time.
PSG, Liverpool’s Nemesis in Two Consecutive Seasons
Last season, Liverpool finished first in the Champions League league phase and were eliminated in the round of sixteen against PSG. What a blow — finishing first with authority and going out so early. In the first leg in Paris, Liverpool won one nil, a very positive result to approach the return leg with confidence, but PSG, who needed to win to avoid elimination, won one nil at Anfield and levelled the tie. What a spectacular two-legged tie between two great teams, who had to settle it on penalties. The French side won four to one. PSG then eliminated Aston Villa under Emery in the quarter-finals and Arsenal under Arteta in the semi-finals, before reaching the final where they thrashed Inter five nil.
This season, fortune for lovers of good football brought the same two teams together again in the quarter-finals. In the first leg, Luis Enrique’s side came out all guns blazing and won two nil, in a match where the scoreline could have been even wider.
Liverpool, currently fifth in the league this season with many goals conceded, faced PSG in the first leg playing with five defenders, giving Luis Enrique’s team more room to attack. When a team plays with five defenders, it is possible that, from the very start, they already feel inferior to the opposition. And when Salah does not play, you can end the match with a worse result than the actual performance reflected, with zero goals scored and facing total and overwhelming domination from the French side.
There is enormous anticipation for the second leg, where tactics and player motivation will be decisive — and that motivation must be at its absolute peak.
The History of Attacking Football, Always Alive
Klopp’s Liverpool will remember when they lost three nil to Valverde’s Barcelona and turned the tie around by winning the second leg four nil. And that other tie involving Emery’s PSG, who won four nil in Paris against Luis Enrique’s Barcelona, only to lose the tie after falling six one at the Camp Nou, with Di María and Cavani’s PSG knocked out. Long live attacking football.
An analysis by Helio del Busto – National Football Coach