Barcelona 1-2 Paris Saint-Germain: Victory for Luis Enrique on return to Catalonia
In the end it was a comfortable enough game for Paris Saint-Germain after an initial Barcelona threat had been slowly weathered in the later stages.
At some point as the proceedings drew to a close, it was interesting to see Luis Enrique’s side flitting around and spreading passes across the pitch while Barcelona chased, the hosts’ almost trademarked perfect blend of calmness and technicality turned against them by their former player and manager.
PSG were missing Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele, as well as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Desire Doue and Marquinhos, all four of whom would have walked into the starting XI if fit, but even an under-strength side ultimately proved to be too strong for Hansi Flick’s team.
In the context of absentees Barcelona were without Raphinha, who is out for a few weeks with a hamstring injury, but other than the Brazilian Flick had a squad that he could easily select to start if he had every player at his disposal.
Barcelona started quite well and there were very good spells where they commanded possession. Then they turned and tricked and found spaces around the PSG backline. In fact they did that for a reasonable part of the game.
Within the opening 20, Ferran Torres was put through by an incisive pass from Lamine Yamal. He rounded Lucas Chevalier and really should have scored, but his effort was cleared by Illia Zabarnyi. Then after Vitinha had given the ball away, Yamal, Pedri and Marcus Rashford combined, with the latter sliding an inch-perfect pass through to Ferran Torres at the back post to convert; and Barcelona were soaring.
With a front three of Bradley Barcola, Senny Mayulu and Ibrahim Mbaye PSG had more than enough to talent to cause all kinds of problems, but it was the enterprising full-backs who were the bigger fish and they had perhaps more space and freedom than they should have been allowed.
Showing trademark pace and power Nuno Mendes streamed clear of Jules Kounde down PSG’s left before finding Mayulu in front of the box, and the teenager beat Pau Cubarsi to the ball, plotted his way around the defender and flashed the ball past Wojciech Szczesny.
Barcelona had several more chances and should have made more out of them, but after the break the home side began to waver. Rashford had a few nice moments but Yamal was much quieter in the second half. Even though Mendes had a yellow card on him and occasionally looked in danger of an early bath, the winger didn’t seem to have the intensity to keep pushing that button.
Perhaps his teammates were also guilty of not bringing him into play often enough. At one point when he did flash into action, he played Torres through with quite some space down the right channel. The Spaniard’s cross was deflected back in front of goal but somehow Dani Olmo was unable to finish, blasting the chance against a PSG defender. There was also a moment where Yamal cut in to try a vintage curler to the far post and it wasn’t far at all.
The older the game got, the bigger PSG grew. On different occasions they streamed through Barcelona and poked dangerously in the box. Barcola fired a warning when he skipped past his full-back and whammed a shot against Szczesny. A few moments later Achraf Hakimi danced past two defenders and fired goalwards, but it was blocked by the quietly impressive Cubarsi.
But that didn’t wake the home side up and the chances began to pile up. Mendes could have done better with a free header at the back post. Vitinha worked hard to put Barcola through but Cubarsi was there to take the danger away with a sliding tackle. A Gonzalo Ramos cut-back in the box looked a certain goal but, again, Cubarsi got down to make a decisive intervention.
The precursor to the winner was the moment when substitute Kang-In Lee wove his way into the box surrounded by Barcelona shirts, the ball under his spell, before curling a dangerous shot that was just slightly overhit and cannoned off the bottom of the post.
Barcelona seemed too tired to prevent what had been advertised, and in stoppage time Hakimi was left in acres of space at the right-hand side. The full-back squared for Ramos, who had all the time and space to pick a spot beyond Szczesny.
