On Wednesday, Paris Saint-Germain lost 3-2 to FC Barcelona at the Parc des Princes in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal tie. Furthermore, one French football expert pointed out the odd starting 11 that didn’t favor the Parisians in the first half.
Raphinha opened the scoring for Barcelona in the 37th minute of the first half. After a relatively quiet opening 45 minutes, the second half saw an explosion of goals. Ousmane Dembélé leveled the score against his former team in the 48th minute. Shortly after, Vitinha put the capital club ahead 2-1, scoring two goals in just two minutes.
However, Barcelona quickly answered. Raphinha scored his second goal in the 62nd minute, bringing the score to 2-2. Then, Andreas Christensen headed in a goal 15 minutes later, giving Barcelona a 3-2 lead with two straight goals.
After the loss, CBS Sports’ Jonathan Johnson wrote a column for Caught Offside and noted that manager Luis Enrique got the starting 11 wrong from the start.
“The one who will face a lot of questions for the second leg is Luis Enrique,” Johnson wrote (h/t Le10Sport). “Playing Lucas Hernandez on the right side of central defense didn’t really work. But to be honest, part of it is because Lucas Beraldo was in big trouble most of the match. The fact that Hernandez plays in a position he is not familiar with has not helped PSG.
“Enrique then made changes during the match to try to fix the bizarre choices he made in his XI, with Marquinhos playing in the middle in the second half while Hernandez was moved to fullback right, which is a bit disconcerting because he normally plays left-back. This completely destabilized the defense, and it is therefore not surprising that the best player in the PSG defense was Nuno Mendes.”
PSG must turn the 3-2 aggregate situation around next week, or else they’ll be saying goodbye to the Champions League.
Pep has the same problem when his team plays Barca… “bizzare choices”. Nothing new – these are coaches with Barca loyalty.