Match date: 2 April 2013

Barcelona are never really the best team away from home during the Champions League knockout stages and against teams that are able to get a lot of pressure on their defense in the last few weeks, Paris Saint Germain and Carlo Ancelotti was hoping to bring the game to Barcelona.

Ancelotti named an very attacking lineup and seemed willing to give up the midfield fight to Barcelona with the rather surprising inclusion of David Beckham. The lineup was definitely a signal of intent by the Italian manager and shows the belief that the PSG project has in becoming a European contender.

Beckham Starts: The Tactics

The choice to start David Beckham was a surprise as he has only started one other game and hasn’t featured for PSG in the Champions League up until this point. So questions about his fitness were fair ones, however, it was more of the tactics behind Beckham’s inclusion that are interesting.

Beckham isn’t a great defensive midfielder and throughout the game, he was usually the deepest midfielder for PSG, meaning that he needed to try to fill that space between the back line, which was usually very deep, and the rest of his midfield. With Beckham sitting in that deeper, regista-like role and with Matuidi just ahead of him, it meant that PSG were still down 3v2 against Barcelona’s midfield. This meant that at least one of either Lucas Moura, Pastore, or Lavezzi were going to have to get into the midfield to help out when Barcelona had the ball. As it turned out, that job went to Pastore, who would get very narrow to try to put more pressure on Xavi and Messi when he drifted in from the right to get on the ball. It created something of a lopsided 4-3-3 for PSG as Lucas Moura enjoyed playing very high on the right side of Ibrahimovic, and Lavezzi, who also helped defensively at times, played from the left.

With Pastore getting narrow, it allowed Alves to get forward as much as he would like and with Maxwell usually watching over Messi and helping Silva as he drifted in, that meant that Pastore would have to go back outside and meet Alves near PSG’s penalty area. He did this numerous times, almost as though he was tracking Alves back, just in a ‘V’ shape on his way back.

Because of that space, Alves had a very influential game. He was easily able to get past Pastore even when he did make it back and delivered some very good balls, creating 3 chances in all, including his rather wonderful assist to Messi. He should have really gotten another assist, finding Sanchez all alone on the left side of PSG’s penalty area, but Sanchez wanted too many touches.

Paris Saint Germain’s Changes

Barcelona looked very good in the first half and looked like they could have put the game out of reach had they been able to get a second goal after Messi’s, who had to be taken off at half time with an injury. This meant that VIlla found himself on the right side of Barcelona’s attack, but always drifting in, with Fabregas playing in the ‘false 9’ role as he has in the past for club and country.

At the beginning of the second half, PSG’s back line, which sat very deep, just a few yards outside of their penalty area in the first half, looked to get much higher and squeeze Barcelona a bit more in midfield. It didn’t help that much and throughout the half, they dropped a little bit deeper, finally sitting as they did in the first half at around the 70th minute.

Ancelotti made his three changes within ten minutes of each other, the last one coming three minutes before PSG’s first goal. Menez was introduced for Lavezzi and changed PSG’s shape a little bit, with Ibrahimovic acting more central and Menez dropping deeper than Lavezzi had been. The second change was introducing Verratti, the 20 year old Italian, for Beckham. Verratti’s introduction added a bit more energy and dynamism in PSG’s midfield. Kevin Gamerio came on for Pastore as the last change, and if it weren’t for Dani Alves, could have found himself on the scoresheet.

With the changes, they looked a bit better going forward, and were winning more corners and free kicks, two things that are always troubling for Barcelona. Verratti was playing a good amount of passes into the final third and Menez offered an option on the left as Gamerio went up top with Ibrahimovic. Rather than playing on the counter attack, PSG found more sustained pressure on Barcelona’s defense and got their first goal because of it. The second PSG goal was mostly a mistake by Valdes, but it was the more attacking mentality that saw Matuidi get forward in support, getting on the end of Ibrahimovic’s knock down.

Conclusion

Both number 2’s, Alves and Silva had very good games for their sides. Alves not only provided the assist for Messi’s opener, but really should have gotten more than that if Sanchez had taken his chances. Silva was  very good in the tackle when the likes of Messi and Villa got into the box, and was very composed at the back, having the ability to slow the game down for PSG when they needed it.

Ancelotti made a big call with naming such an attacking lineup, but he will feel it was the right call as they were able to expose Barcelona’s weaknesses at times and added pressure onto them during the closing stages of the match.

One of their biggest worries will be their midfield area. Beckham didn’t do too much wrong in the game, but didn’t show his range of passing well enough to really influence the game. Being without Matuidi might be the biggest worry that Ancelotti will have to ponder and will have to decided whether he it is necessary to leave one of his attacking quartet off the field.

Barcelona still got two away goals and haven’t lost at the Nou Camp in the knockout stages for 6 years, so despite PSG getting two goals to draw the game, one from a missed offside call, it is still a daunting task that they face.