Match date: 20 August 2013

It is a shame that only one of PSV and Milan can make it into the group stages of the Champions League, but somehow, someway, the two have matched up in a playoff tie and the first leg was a good match overall.

Both sides played a 4-3-3 and both were at full strength which include Milan’s Mario Balotelli, who is eligible for this year’s Champions League after missing out on last year’s as he was cup-tied following his move from Manchester City in January. Milan’s side, however, had a good mixture of youth and experience and even their young players, Balotelli and El Shaarawy, are full internationals.

PSV are a much more youthful side and, in some respects, it was perhaps a bit of inexperience that caused the Dutch side problems against the Italian giants.

PSV’s Back Four

The oldest player in PSV’s back four is Jeffrey Bruma, who is just 21, and they are backed by 22 year old goalkeeper Jereon Zoet. Just about 6 minutes into the match, the inexperience of the back line was a bit exposed when Zoet came out to challenge Balotelli for ball outside of the penalty area and then had to scramble back to goal only to come out again and block El Shaarawy’s shot as he closed in on goal.

Their next moment of inexperience came when Milan scored their goal. Memphis, who was tracking his full back well from left wing, went into a tackle with Abate and lost out, giving Abate plenty of time to pick out the unmarked El Shaarawy in the middle of PSV’s penalty area, who then headed in the opening goal of the tie.

Neither of the centre backs, Bruma and Rekik, have an idea where El Shaarawy as the ball goes past them. Rekik had to try to close down Abate as Williems was on the ground from his sliding tackle and Bruma was tracking the Milan player just at the top of the penalty area. Brenet is the one tracking El Shaarawy, but is miles behind.

This came after a good spell of possession for PSV, who made plenty of their own chances. For the remainder of the match, the youthful, but highly talented back four made amends and kept out Milan. Positionally, they were still a bit susceptible to dealing with runners, especially when dealing with the runners who were reacting to crosses in the box. An example below being a cross into El Shaarawy where Rekik passed on the Milan forward to Williems, but the PSV left back was on the wrong side and had to really stretch to get a touch on the ball.

3v3 in Midfield

With both sides playing a 4-3-3, it was interesting to see how they matched up in midfield. Overall, PSV had the better part of play. Their movement was fluid on the attack and they moved the ball very quickly as they tried to displace the Milan midfield and defenders. Milan’s midfield were much more rigid when in possession of the ball and were more defensively astute, as to be expected, but allowed the PSV players time on the ball and simply absorbed the pressure from PSV’s three midfielders rather than close them down.

The PSV midfield only slightly outpassed Milan’s, but their quality of play was much better. Schaars recorded the most passes during the game, 25 ahead of the next closest player, mostly because Milan did not mark him. Being 3v3 in midfield, it would have been easy for the players to match up, but De Jong would drop off deep into Milan’s half, which left Montolivo and Muntari to deal with Schaars, Wijnaldum, and Maher, who was very clever with his movement.

As you can see in the picture above though, Muntari is tracking Wijnaldum, but Montolivo is some way off of Schaars and Milan were content with allowing him to consistently pick up the ball. Balotelli, who you can see on the right side of the image, was poor at dropping in to pick up Schaar when the front two Milan midfielders were occupied and it allowed Schaar and PSV the ability to dictate the tempo of the match for greater periods of time.

Again, Schaar has no Milan player within ten yards of him and this allowed Schaar to play more vertical passes into the feet of the PSV forwards (as you can see below). The Milan players would back off him until the ball got to about 25 yards within the Milan half, which really allowed Schaar to play 4 key passes throughout the match.

Milan’s stand off play also resulted in PSV’s goal. Bruma was able to advance with the ball with no pressure, take his shot, which Abbiati fumbled, allowing Matavz to head home.

On the defensive side of the ball, PSV did what Milan possibly should have if they wanted to limit the influence of Schaar. Nigel De Jong was limited to 40 passes because Maher and Matavz would, at separate times, put pressure on De Jong. Maher would initially pressure De Jong until Matavz came back and then would usually drop back into PSV’s midfield and allow them to retain their shape.

At times, due to the fluid movement that PSV showed on offense, someone like Park would drop on De Jong and the PSV midfield shape would maintain shape.

Balotelli, El Shaarawy

Since the arrival of Balotelli to AC Milan, El Shaarawy’s form dropped significantly. A lot of this may have been more due to the burden put on the young forward during the first half of the season as he started to become the main outlet of Milan’s attack. When El Shaarawy’s form dipped following Balotelli’s arrival, many put it up to the idea that the two could not play together. However, during this match, the linked up very well and there was good understanding and communication.

Their movement was very fluid and, in two of El Shaarawy’s good chances came from a central role as Balotelli would either drop a bit deeper into a second striker position or take up positions on the left wing.

Above, you can see Balotelli dropped into that deeper role, with El Shaarawy peeling off his defenders and getting in behind the PSV back four, just narrowly missing the goal with a chip shot after being set up by a Balotelli ball.

Conclusion

An exciting game and a game that both might be disappointed in drawing as they both had numerous chances to get more than one goal.

Milan will probably be the happier side as they have an away goal, but they Allegri and the Milan players will be wary of conceding at the San Siro, especially if their midfield plays as stand off as they did today. Allowing Schaar to have as much time as he did on the ball allowed PSV to dictate the game. Long periods of PSV possession might have not resulted in a goal, in fact both goals came at times when the other team were seemingly on top of the match, but the more possession the Dutch side has at the San Siro, the more chances they will be able to create as they look to get an away goal.