Match date: 2 April 2014

Chelsea failed to make it out of their Champions League group last year, with Juventus and Shakhtar progressing over the English club. Paris Saint Germain, on the other hand, lost just one match in their Champions League campaign and that was in the group stages of the competition, a 1-0 loss to Porto. Unfortunately for Paris Saint Germain, they were knocked out of the competition by Barcelona on away goals at this stage.

Laurent Blanc named what is arguably his strongest lineup, with the only difference being Jallet in for Van der Wiel, who failed a late fitness test.

Jose Mourinho made the first move in what was a good tactical battle by not playing a recognised striker, opting to start Andre Schurrle as Chelsea’s furthest forward player, while the rest of the team was the English side’s strongest XI.

Midfield Battle

The start of the match saw Paris Saint Germain play quickly around Chelsea’s pressing and they got an early goal through Lavezzi because of their quick, direct play. However, after the goal, which was scored just three minutes in, PSG opted to drop deeper rather than continue to keep the ball and keep the pressure on Chelsea’s back four. The result was a fairly interesting midfield battle.

The first thing to note is that Paris Saint Germain were playing a 4-3-3 and Chelsea were set out in a 4-2-3-1 meaning that the midfield triangles matched up: 2-1 v 1-2. For PSG, Thiago Motta was the holding midfielder with Verratti and Matuidi in front of him, but far too many times their shape with the ball looked more like a 4-2-3-1 with Verratti dropping deep. The young Italian had an incredibly frustrating match from a neutral perspective; at times he was absolutely magnificent in possession, playing his way past Chelsea’s pressing with ease. In fact, he and Matuidi were able to break Chelsea’s pressing with their dribbling on numerous occasions. However, Verratti also had far too many moments where he was the worst player on the pitch, guilty of losing possession far too easily and putting his goalkeeper and back four under unnecessary pressure.

When PSG were in possession, Thiago Motta’s role in the side was to pick up the ball from the centre backs and look to make a forward pass into midfield. Oscar was meant to put pressure on Motta, but was surprising ineffective in really keeping the ball from getting to Motta, who was allowed freedom. The problem for PSG came as they looked to draw Chelsea in, so that they could then break, meaning Verratti dropped deep alongside Motta to give the centre backs another near option to pass the ball to, which allowed Ramires, in particular, to come further up the pitch and congest that area of the pitch, in turn making it harder for both Verratti and Motta to receive the ball with the ability to turn into midfield.

When Verratti dropped into that area, it was almost like an unplanned pressing trigger for Chelsea, who would then immediately get numbers forward to put pressure on the PSG ball carrier. Below is a good example of Verratti’s presence in the defensive third of the field causing problems for PSG. The only reason Ramires is as close to Thiago Motta as he is, is because he was able to leave his deeper position and follow Verratti into PSG’s defensive third. This allowed Oscar to push on and for him and Schurrle to apply pressure to both PSG centre backs, knowing that Verratti’s positioning would allow Ramires to be in a space where it would difficult to play the ball into either Thaigo Motta or Verratti.

This also forced Ibrahimovic to drop deeper to try to get on the ball and offer a vertical option, but also allowed Lavezzi to drift inside.

Matuidi was one of the best players on the pitch throughout the night as he found space intelligently, especially down the left side of PSG’s attack as Lavezzi would drift inside, and was able to break the Chelsea lines with his dribbling. He was able to provide a few good crosses as well, the first which led, after a poor John Terry clearance, to Lavezzi’s opening goal and later a good ball in for another Lavezzi chance.

For Chelsea, David Luiz looked composed and disciplined in the first half, but it seemed to evade him in the second half and poor decision making led to him committing the foul that led to the free kick that he scored the own goal from. Ramires was poor throughout the match as well, perhaps because he picked up a yellow card early on in the match after bringing down Lavezzi when he was on a break. Far too many times the two Brasilians found themselves outnumbered in midfield, especially in the first half, as the roles of Oscar and Andre Schürrle seemed to be lost on the two.

Chelsea’s Attack and Pressing

The surprise move by Jose Mourinho to play Andre Schürrle as the team’s central focal point in attack was an odd one and one that seemed to mean Mourinho was looking for a result similar to the 0-0 affair that Chelsea played out earlier in the season against Manchester United. The German was unable to give Chelsea a true, central focal point for their attacks as he often dropped into midfield during their build up play and was then slow to get into a higher position. Below, you can see that he only really received the ball about four or five times in an area of the pitch that a true number 9 like Fernando Torres or Samuel Eto’o would position themselves.

As a result, a lot of the play came through Eden Hazard, who made it difficult for Jallet on the left side of Chelsea’s attack and also forced Cavani to drop and help Jallet, meaning that the Uruguayan was further from the Chelsea goal. While Schürrle was unable to record a shot during his time on the pitch, Hazard got three off, with just one, his penalty, on target. Without a central focal point or runs from Schurrle in behind the PSG defense, and with Alex and Thiago Silva playing very well, Chelsea found it difficult to get shots off and create chances in and around the PSG area.

Having another player like Schurrle, however, did allow Chelsea to press PSG with much greater effect. Above, it was mentioned how the positioning of Thiago Motta and Verratti invited the Chelsea pressure, but the English club made the most of their pressing when they did so, particularly when they pressed Verratti, who was dispossessed in dangerous areas far too often for PSG’s liking.

Changes

Mourinho made the first change, bringing on Torres for Schürrle to provide Chelsea with a centre focal point that Schürrle was unable to give them. Unfortunately, Torres’ play around the PSG penalty area was poor. Most of his activity, passing and receiving, took place in the middle third and he failed to get a shot off.

Blanc’s substitutions were much more game-changing, however. Lucas Moura’s introduction, for the injured Ibrahimovic, allowed Cavani to play through the middle and added pace and invention to the right side of PSG’s attack. Almost immediately, he had a good run at the Chelsea back four and passed the ball off to Cavani who lost it. Minutes after that, he had another dazzling run and again found Cavani, who this time had a 1v1 with Cahill, only for the Chelsea defender to poke the ball away.

Blanc’s second change, also enforced, but also incredibly effective was bringing on Yohan Cabaye for Verratti, who, as mentioned above, had a turbulent match. Cabaye’s introduction allowed PSG keep possession much better than Verratti had. The Italian was technically PSG’s second best passer, in terms of passes completed, but his decision making was poor and lost possession cheaply too often. Cabaye’s introduction also made PSG look more like a 4-3-3 that they were meant to be in, but as mentioned, Verratti dropped too deep and invited Chelsea pressure onto Motta and himself.

Conclusion

Of course, the most telling change was Javier Pastore, who scored the third goal for PSG in the last seconds of the match. It allowed Mourinho to take pressure off himself and blame his defense for allowing such a poor goal in at the end, but really it was Mourinho’s tactics that lost the match for Chelsea.

His decision to start Schürrle as the team’s striker did not work, especially as his side looked to absorb PSG’s possession play and then attack on the counter.

PSG will be pleased that they were able to get a third goal, as they deserved to have a two goal advantage going into the second leg of the tie. A big loss for PSG will be Ibrahimovic who, despite not having too much of an influence on the first leg, won’t be fit for the second leg.