A week full of contrasts. After Wednesday's failures in the Champions League against Atlético Madrid, which raised serious doubts about the offensive effectiveness of PSG during European evenings, the French champion returned to success on Saturday in Angevin by combining the manner and realism in the first period. After 45 minutes of play, Luis Enrique's men had largely won the match thanks to two doubles from Bradley Barcola and Kang-in Lee but also three assists from Marco Asensio, mobile and omnipresent. Unlike his mid-week performance.
4-0 at the break, Paris regained its efficiency and further fueled the thesis of a formation with two faces: merciless in Ligue 1 and borrowed in front of the goals when the European anthem sounds. Questioned on Tuesday on the eve of the match lost against the Colchoneros (2-1), Luis Enrique refuted this idea, affirming that his team had “always the same collective idea” and that he was “satisfied with what he saw in attack and defense”, still pointing to a “difference in level” between the two competitions. “I would sign to have the same statistics but with different results,” he said before experiencing “a shitty evening” the next day.
On Saturday evening, the former La Roja coach had reason to be satisfied with a somewhat different offensive animation composed of a strong presence in the axis, which made it possible to find players one against one on the sides. Should we see it as a question of level, a question of pressure on the shoulders of its attackers between the two competitions? The only certainty is that Paris is averaging almost 3 goals this season in the league, whereas it is stagnating at 0.7 on the European scene. In Ligue 1, this is the fourth time in 11 days that the club has won by passing at least four goals to its opponent.
“If we take the examples of Brest or Monaco, who scored a lot in the Champions League, this demonstrates that the level of the L1 is high,” believes Luis Enrique. Our team has good players, the quality is there, undeniably, regardless of the players on the pitch. Perhaps it is a question of pressure, of a sense of responsibility, perhaps too. But there will be a lot of goals in L1 and the Champions League. The quality is there and everything is in our hands to meet this challenge. »
On the player side, Kang-in Lee did not believe in the thesis of a PSG sharp in domestic tasks and ineffective in European evenings “I don't know how to explain it. I think it's something that depends on the day. It's not a question of the Champions League or Ligue 1. There will be European matches where we will score a lot of goals, said the double South Korean scorer and now the club's second top scorer on the French scene. I have confidence in my team and we have confidence with each other and I'm sure we'll score plenty of goals. A difference in levels between the championship and the C1? I don't think so. This is something I don't understand. There are matches where it fits and others not. »
Winner of Monaco (0-1) at Louis-II and author of a draw (0-0) against OM at the Vélodrome, Alexandre Dujeux, the Angevin coach, had a rather dithyrambic look at his tormentor of the evening . “It’s difficult to make a comparison,” he begins, but I can tell you that the match in which we suffered the most was this evening against Paris. PSG always creates a lot of chances, but efficiency makes all the difference, it's what makes you sacred or not. During the match against Atlético, they lacked efficiency but they had an impressive control of the game. The fact that Madrid suffered a lot reassures me a little. Effectiveness is what makes a coach right or not. » And this Saturday evening, it is clear that Luis Enrique was far from wrong.
