It’s an ingrained habit, almost a philosophy: PSG runs less than its opponents in the Champions League. And as during its home defeat against Barça in the quarter-final first leg (2-3), Paris covered even less distance than Dortmund during its setback (1-0) for the first act of its semi-final. C1. Where all Borussia players covered 119.7 kilometers, the men of the capital club “only” 110.1 on the clock. A difference of almost 10 km that German defender Mats Hummels justified on DAZN after the match.
“If we want to beat such a team, we also have to run more,” notes the 2014 world champion with the Mannschaft. We must also say that Paris has two or three players who do not make every meter defensively, who bring incredible offensive qualities. They run less, but that unfortunately doesn’t make them worse. »
A figure to put into perspective
In absolute terms, this raw statistic is not necessarily relevant. Copenhagen is on average the team that ran the most, with 127 kilometers per match, in the group stage of this Champions League, while the Danes finished in second place in their group. Data, which Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui in France had obtained, showed that Paris was one of the teams which ran “the best” this season in Europe, with the greatest number of meters covered in the sprint on average per group match.
Last season, PSG were knocked out in the round of 16 by Bayern, after two matches where they each time ran less than the Bavarians, in the same proportions as against Borussia. “Physically, they were no longer there at all. The midfielders were asphyxiated, they were no longer pressing and the Bavarians were able to manage calmly,” former Parisian midfielder Edouard Cissé stressed to L’Equipe after the return match. Where the coach at the time, Christophe Galtier, pointed out “profiles of players who demand the ball at their feet”, like Neymar or Lionel Messi. Both have left, but PSG has not changed in this area.
