Manager hails Parisians’ “fantastic philosophy” but bemoans his side’s lack of freshness
Paris Saint-Germain are on another level compared to Barcelona, according to the Catalans’ coach Hansi Flick.
Barcelona fell to a 2-1 defeat to PSG in the Champions League on Wednesday. Ferran Torres had given Flick’s side an early lead, but PSG hit back with Senny Mayulu before Goncalo Ramos scored in stoppage time to claim a deserved win for the Parisians.
Despite missing Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele, as well as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Desire Doue and Marquinho, all guaranteed starters for the club, PSG handled Barcelona’s initial pressure before clicking into further gears in the second half and pressing until they were rewarded with the winner.
“You can see it today, there’s no point saying we’re on the same level,” said Flick. “But I believe in my team. Today wasn’t our best day, but we are working again to reach this level. Today we lost, but we want to come back.
“We could see the level of PSG and I’m 100 per cent sure we can also play like this. It’s about 90 minutes. The whole team has to defend, attack, use the spaces and be involved in the ball possession.
“You can see in PSG everyone wants the ball, knows how to use the space, play 1v1, 2v1. This is also what we have to learn, we have to get better.”
Flick praised Luis Enrique’s side for their ability to replace their star players and maintain their level. He also said that fatigue was responsible for his players’ reduced performance in the second half.
“The philosophy [PSG] have is fantastic, with young players coming in, high quality, speed with the ball,” said Flick.
“They had fresh legs, you could see they increased the level of the team. For me, we have a lot of matches the last weeks and of course we have to learn about this.
“We started very well, but after 30, 35 minutes, it was like PSG controlled more the game. We suffered a little in the first half but also in the second half we don’t have this control of the game.
“In the second half, you could see that some players are really tired. We took care about Pedri, Marcus [Rashford]. Of course Frenkie [de Jong] also, but he really gave his best.”
