PSG's quintessential goal and why opposing teams still don't know how to stop it

New York Times

2 days ago

The game itself was about as convincing a performance as you can get in such sweltering conditions, but it was Paris Saint-Germain's third goal that caught the eye in their 4-0 win against Real Madrid in Wednesday's Club World Cup semi-final.
After giving Madrid the run-around by keeping possession for nearly half a minute midway through the first half, PSG worked the ball back to goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma before finding themselves with the perfect opportunity to execute a typical move from head coach Luis Enrique's playbook — ripping through Madrid's shape with some excellent one-touch action.
'Hang it in the Louvre' would not be an outrageous declaration to make, given that some of the new European champions' patterns, like this, can resemble an art form at times.
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There are many impressive elements of this goal to unpack, with the crucial pass that unlocked the attack foremost among them.
As Achraf Hakimi receives the ball from Donnarumma near the touchline, Vitinha shuffles across to offer a square ball into midfield and drags his marker with him.
Here, PSG's midfielders have intentionally left space in the middle of the pitch for a team-mate to exploit — with any one of Enrique's attacking trio encouraged to either roll inside from the touchline or drop deep from a more central area.
That is exactly what occurs below, as Desire Doue comes into his own half to receive Hakimi's pass, with Madrid centre-back Antonio Rudiger following him and ending up incredibly far out of position. Add a simple return ball from Doue to Hakimi, and the dominoes have already begun to fall.
What is interesting is that Madrid had been given a warning sign of this very sequence of play eight minutes earlier.
As PSG circulate possession across the back line, Hakimi receives on the touchline, Vitinha makes that square run across to empty the midfield, and Doue drops to fill the space before spinning Madrid's left-back Fran Garcia and springing another attack from back to front.
For those of you thinking of the 'Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme' right now, you would be correct in doing so. That's right, you might well have seen this move from PSG in other matches this season.
The two salient examples were the goals Ousmane Dembele scored away to both Liverpool and Arsenal in the last 16 and semi-finals of the Champions League respectively. On those occasions, the crucial pass was delivered by Nuno Mendes from the left flank, not Hakimi on the right, but the principles remain the same.
Madrid head coach Xabi Alonso could not claim post-match that he hadn't seen this pattern before. Not just from those games in PSG's triumphant Champions League campaign, but as recently as last Saturday, in their Club World Cup quarter-final defeat of Bayern Munich.
The similarity of the sequences is remarkable.
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As PSG zip the ball across their back line once again, Bayern are in a good position, having gone man-for-man in their aggressive press high up the field. This time, it is Joao Neves who is crucial in shuffling across to offer for a pass from midfield, coming deeper to make space elsewhere.
Hakimi's diagonal ball finds Bradley Barcola rolling inside from wide — into space opened up by his team-mates in the middle. Note once again the out-of-position centre-back (this time it's Jonathan Tah) making a failed attempt to close down Doue, who has also dropped deep to receive the ball.
It's another curated, direct attack that leaves Bayern's defence scrambling to retreat towards their own goal, with dominoes falling everywhere.
The same sequence was on show again barely five minutes later.
You know what happens by now.
This time, Fabian Ruiz is the midfielder making the square run towards Hakimi, but everything else is the same — PSG's Moroccan right-back opens his body up and plays the diagonal ball into space for Barcola to attack, and the 22-year-old spins before thrusting forward.
From a tactical perspective, it has been widely discussed that the best way to beat the press is by playing the ball back into the space that your opponents are shepherding you away from.
Given that a coherent press is designed to push the in-possession team in a certain direction, going against the grain means that the opposition's momentum is halted and — as the above examples show — that press is subsequently broken.
It is a masterful sequence that Luis Enrique has imposed. Just when the other team think they have pinned PSG towards the touchline, little do they know that they are arguably at their most vulnerable.
Having such well-worked, choreographed patterns is one thing, but the technical quality and raw athleticism of PSG's players is like a cheat code. Step off them and they can circulate possession for minutes at a time, get tight and they can spring forward in the blink of an eye.
Such is the pace they have across the team, you would be forgiven for thinking that third goal against Madrid on Wednesday came on a counter-attack, given how the ball was worked from back to front.
Finding a weakness in this side is a difficult task at the moment, as some of Europe's other top clubs — Madrid, Bayern, Inter, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool, among others — have found out in recent months.
An opportunity to lift a fifth and final trophy of their 2024-25 season awaits, with Luis Enrique's side being heavy favourites against Chelsea in Sunday's final.
His counterpart Enzo Maresca will be acutely aware of the danger PSG pose all over the pitch and will no doubt be imploring his side to stay alert for every single second of the match — a simple pass out to the full-back can be the beginning of a deadly attack.