Introduction
PSG had 70% of the possession and took 27 shots but failed to score while Liverpool won 1-0 with just two shots. The only shot on target taken by Elliott who replaced Salah a minute before gave Slot’s side an advantage towards the second leg at Anfield. It was quite surprising that the top of the Premier League suffered so much in Paris, but one of the strengths of Liverpool this season is the ability to win a game somehow, often thanks to Salah but this time the substitute of him.
However, the game is not over yet as there is another a game of 90 minutes at Anfield. Last year they lost 3-0 to Atalanta at home in European competition, so it won’t be an easy task for them to defend the lead even at their home ground.
In this article, the first leg of the game between PSG and Liverpool is going to be analysed in detail, and here’s the lineup of the game.
High press against each other
Both teams tried to press high, but the principle was different. PSG went man to man, and on the other hand, Liverpool started to press from a zonal 4-1-2-3 system unlike their usual 4-4-2.
PSG pushed up the right fullback Hakimi higher to mark Robertson to match up the marking.
As Hakimi looked after Robertson, Kvaratskhelia tucked inside and pressed the opposition centre backs with Dembélé. In the midfield, there was a 3v3 and each midfielder kept marking each assigned opposition midfield. Therefore, when Szoboszlai positioned himself higher and it seemed to be a front of four for Liverpool, Vitinha often looked like a centre back between Mendes and Pacho.
As it is illustrated above, Van Dijk launched a long ball into Salah in the third minutes of the game, and even though Mendes recovered the ball and played back to Donnarumma, Liverpool applied high pressing to win the ball back in the opposition half. This cycle enabled Liverpool to create a few opportunities of attacking in the first half in the early stage of the game, but we all know it didn’t last long.
Unlike PSG, Liverpool tried to press high from a zonal 4-1-2-3 shape. This might be a tactical adjustment against PSG’s unique build up.
Vitinha or Neves coming deep to pick the ball up in their own box from Donnarumma, and against this, Liverpool’s central striker Jota applied straight pressure on him. Then, as soon as the ball was played to Marquinhos, Díaz pressed on him and the 8 Mac Allister shifted to the opposition fullback Hakimi in the example above in the 6th minutes.
Another great example of Liverpool’s high pressing was in the 28th minutes when Vitinha played over to Mendes, the left fullback, but Szoboszlai closed him down quickly to win the ball.
But how well you can press high cannot be determined by the positional or tactical structure, but the will is the most important. Liverpool prioritised to maintain a compact shape rather than chasing the ball with accepting their own shape to be stretched, like they often do under Slot. They let PSG possess the ball at the back or around the halfway line, but they tried their best to close the gap between the lines.
PSG’s flexibility pinned Liverpool in their half
When Liverpool set themselves in the midfield, PSG tried to break it down with flexibility among them. Hakimi and Kvaratskhelia shared the right half lane and outside lane, and Dembélé often played in the left pocket. Mendes usually stayed deeper but occasionally moved higher as Barcola tucked inside. The most flexible unit was the midfield three and they moved freely to find space to get on the ball.
The main method that they tried to break Liverpool’s last line was runs in behind from half spaces.
In 23rd minute, Kvaratskhelia quickly turned his body angle and made a run through the channel to lose Mac Allister. Another good one was Barcola’s run through the gap between Konaté and Alexander-Arnold, and he was pushed down by Konaté from his back, but a foul wasn’t given after the VAR check.
Probably, Slot analysed these movements from PSG, so he assigned a task to both defensive midfielders to mark tightly to someone in the half spaces. ‘Someone’ is not a specific player as PSG rotated players frequently, so it was random who was there.
The intention to mark tightly to the opponents in the half spaces was reflected on the fact that Mac Allister or Gravenberch often dropped into the back line, looking like a back five or even six.
This tactical adjustment nullified PSG’s threat to some extent, even though they created some chances from the movements a few times as we talked about. It is really interesting to see if Slot does it again in the second leg of this round.
Domination by PSG & Clinical from Liverpool
The domination of the possession from PSG continued in the second half as well. There were changes of positions as Kvaratskhelia moved to left. This tweak worked well as PSG could effectively find someone in the left pocket to penetrate into the space between the lines.
Kvaratskhelia often kept the width in the left flank and Dembélé had huge space in the left pocket as Salah tended to stay higher. This space was the key for PSG to exploit the opposition defensive block in the second half.
On the other hand, Liverpool asked Díaz to drop back into the back line more often to keep the last line narrow when Hakimi moved higher. This helped them to keep the gaps between the defenders tighter to prevent PSG to exploit the channel like they did in the first half.
PSG took many shots, but most of them were taken from outside the box. They weren’t enough to break down Liverpool’s centre backs. This is similar to the game against Man City, which Doku had beaten Alexander-Arnold again and again, but they couldn’t play past the centre backs.
Liverpool scored the winner from playing long. Against this long ball, there were the centre backs and defensive midfielders, and the left fullback Mendes wasn’t alert enough to drop back as a line. This was the cost of man marking pressing and Liverpool were luckily able to exploit it within the first 90 minutes.
