Match Date: 6 March 2013

PSG played very well in the first leg of the tie to earn a 2-1 victory. Not only did they win, but they got two away goals. However, for the second leg, they were to be without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has been involved in 7, scoring 2 and assisting 5, of PSG’s goals in the Champions League, almost 50% of their goals. Valencia would have been hoping that without PSG’s main threat, they would be able to focus on scoring themselves rather than preventing PSG from doing so.

PSG Feel Ibra Absence

As mentioned before, Ibrahimovic has been involved in almost half of PSG’s goals this Champions League campaign and has been incredibly important to their league campaign where he has scored 22 and assisted 5 of PSG’s 49 goals. Without him, Lavezzi was charged with leading the line despite not being in great form since his move from Napoli in the summer.

It wasn’t so much the lack of goals that was troubling for a Ibra-less PSG this evening, it was a complete lack of a focal point for their attacks. In league play, just about everything runs through Ibrahimovic and, without him, PSG weren’t able to make much of their attacks when they were able to get the ball, which wasn’t that often. Lavezzi would continually find himself dropping deep, as he did when he was at Napoli with Edison Cavani ahead of him.

During the first half, PSG managed 0 shots on target, with 1 off target and 3 blocked.

The second half continued in the same manner for about the 15 minutes, until Carlo Ancelotti introduced Kevin Gameiro to lead the line and it certainly changed the dynamic of their attack a bit, giving them a really good outlet as he tried to fashion chances and take players on. His willingness to run at defenders with the ball led to Lavezzi’s goal, credit to a fortunate bounce and then a bit of luck to see Lavezzi’s first shot rebound right to him. Lavezzi’s two shots in this sequence were two of only three that PSG managed to get on target in the match.

Lack of Penetration from Valencia

Valencia moved the ball through the midfield with relative ease as they looked to break down PSG’s defense and started the game well, with Jonas and Soldado getting chances within the first 15 minutes, but then the game sort of fell into a pattern of Valencia moving the ball from side to side, trying to use their width.

At the interval, Ever Banega was introduced for Albelda and it certainly gave Valencia a bit more creativity to go along with their long spells of possession and while it didn’t lead directly to Jonas’ goal, the higher pressure from the Valencia midfield, forced the mistake that led to it.

75% of Valencia’s shots were from outside the box, including Jonas’ goal.

Poor Crossing

Both sides seemed to want to play in the wide areas. Aly Cissokho, Antonio Barragan, and Maxwell all looked to get forward as much as possible and when Gregory van der Wiel came on for the injured Jallet half way through the first half, he too looked to get up the pitch. However, the crossing from both sides was incredibly poor.

PSG attempted 17 crosses in the match with only meeting its target. Javier Pastore attempted 8, failing to find his target. Valencia, though, were equally poor, especially from their full backs. Cissokho attempted 7 crosses and Barragan attempted 6, but neither found their target. In total, Valencia connected on just 3 of their 34 crosses.

Conclusion

A fairly poor match overall, but a result that sees PSG move into the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time since 1995. They’ll be hoping that with Zlatan Ibrahimovic back in the side, they’ll be able to produce a much more potent attack against their next opponent.