What started off as a positive enough exercise in containing a severely depleted Paris Saint-Germain side ultimately ended in an historic defeat for Hansi Flick’s Barça side.
It’s the first time in the club’s history that any team has beaten them in Barcelona three times in succession and, unfortunately, no one who watched it could say that the Parisians didn’t deserve it.
There were some good moments for the hosts though they were few and far between. By the end of the game they’d simply run out of steam
and ideas.
Let’s take a look at three things that contributed to the outcome…
Another assist for Marcus Rashford
On a night of precious few positives for the Blaugranes, on loan Manchester United ace, Marcus Rashford, did his continued employment as a starter no harm at all with another reasonable performance.
Aside from a superb slide-rule assist for Ferran Torres to open the scoring, the attacker was dynamic in his running and unlucky with his finishing.
As he still gets to grips with his role in the team he will improve his associative play, though he can certainly be happy with his contribution against Luis Enrique’s side.
High line needs addressing again
When it works it’s brilliant, but when it doesn’t Hansi Flick’s high line is nothing short of suicidal. Particularly in the last few moments of a match when your opponents are in the ascendancy.
That falls squarely on the manager’s shoulders I’m afraid.
With only one team realistically in it during the final 10 minutes or so, it would’ve made much more sense for Barcelona to be more compact and for the defence to drop back a few yards.
It was only ever going to take once chance to win the game by then, and the hosts got what they deserved after trying to play PSG offside once too often.
A different game if Nuno Mendes was sent off
His marauding runs have been a feature of PSG’s play under Luis Enrique, but there’s no way that Nuno Mendes should’ve been on the pitch after bringing Lamine Yamal down just outside the penalty box in the second half.
Having already received a yellow card earlier in the game, his foul was blatant and so obvious that it’s a wonder how Michael Oliver saw it any differently.
Moreover, a clear and obvious error is precisely the point when VAR should intervene, and yet they too stayed quiet.
Who knows how much the pendulum may have swung in Barça’s direction had the player gone off.
What’s even more galling is he won the man of the match award with the UEFA Technical Observer saying “He defended very well against Lamine Yamal in one-on-one situations for most of the game. He also looked very dangerous going forward, and created Paris’ first goal.”
