Paris Saint-Germain‘s sliding doors moment — when everything came together — was likely back on Jan. 22. Facing Manchester City at the Parc des Princes, they found themselves two goals down in the second half and stormed back to win 4-2. Had they not turned it around, they would have been eliminated. Instead, they went on a tear that saw them win 17 of their next 19 games as coach Luis Enrique turned them into a near-flawless football machine, clinching a domestic treble and a first-ever UEFA Champions League title.
Luis Enrique has often praised his players for the reaction they showed in adversity and their ability to react. You can be certain he was hoping for the same when Cole Palmer‘s one-two punch gave Chelsea a two-goal lead at the half-hour mark on Sunday.
Except … the comeback never came, and the question he and his staff will be wondering is what they could have done differently.
As ever, there’s more than one answer. You can pinpoint individual breaks — the ball sitting up for Malo likes after his blocked finish — and individual errors – Nuno Mendes getting shoved off the ball, Desired opting not to shoot, Vitinha biting on Palmer’s body fake — to explain the 3-0 halftime deficit. And you’d be right.
A more thorough reading, though, would suggest PSG didn’t react because Chelsea did not allow them to. Enzo Maresca’s crew came out of the box with an unusual combination of rabid intensity and tactical know -how — witness the role Reece James played in helping to blunt the previously near unplayable Nuno Mendes-Khvicha Kvaratskhelia chain down the right. Doubling up the moment any guy in a white shirt got the ball (other than the two center backs, who did not present much of a footballing threat) isn’t the sort of thing you can keep up for 90 minutes, but Chelsea didn’t need to.
(Maresca himself, after the game, said: “We held that intensity for as long as we could, maybe 35 minutes, but it turned out to be enough to win the match because by that stage we were 2-0 up.”)
Sunday’s final left PSG — and maybe Luis Enrique himself — stunned. This is usually what his players do to opponents, not the other way around. And it’s risky, too, because one misread trigger and the press is broken, leaving you to face Desire Doue, Ousmane Dembélé or Achraf Hakimi in full flight. Chelsea had the athleticism to do this. Most PSG opponents won’t.
In that sense, Luis Enrique shouldn’t fret. They were beaten by an opponent who matches up unusually well against them, and it could have gone the other way. But equally, this is the sort of beatdown that sows doubt.
Maybe Vitinha & Co. aren’t as press-resistant as we thought. Maybe the old Dembélé — the one who, on his worse days, is far from being a Ballon d’Or candidate and looks more like the player who used to haunt the Camp Nou without purpose — hasn’t been thoroughly banished. Maybe sometimes it’s not a bad thing to have a center forward who can play with his back to goal. Maybe Luis Enrique, for all his wisdom, should have done a better job at reading what Chelsea were doing to PSG in the first half-hour and found the countermeasures.
1:30
FC crew slam ‘unacceptable’ outburst from Enrique after Club World Cup final
The ESPN FC crew react to the scenes between Luis Enrique and the Chelsea squad after the Club World Cup final.
This will be an interesting summer for PSG. With so much youth and talent, there isn’t too much to ask of the transfer market. They need to make a decision on Gianluigi Donnarumma — the goalkeeper has a year left on his contract and you either move on or you extend, though the latter isn’t easy. (Reports in Italy suggest that his agent, Enzo Raiola, who was at the game, wants a bump to €15 million net, or around $35m, while the club are offering €10m net including bonuses.)
Willian Pacho‘s absence (due to suspension) weighed heavy at the back, while Marquinhos isn’t getting any younger and Lucas Beraldo isn’t getting any better. Maybe there’s some help at center back needed.
Beyond that though, there aren’t many obvious personnel upgrades, which means these players will have to continue to grow together as a team if PSG are going to come back even stronger. Luis Enrique will need to be a big part of that.
