Photo credit: Sports Vision
This season, Paris Saint-Germain experienced a massive turnover of players, with Diallo joining Leipzig, Herrera moving to Athletic Bilbao, Wijnaldum arriving at Roma, Draxler moving to Benfica, and Paredes joining Juventus, all of which were on loan. Meanwhile, Paris brought in new players such as Porto's Vitinha, Leipzig's Mikiele, Napoli's Fabian Ruiz and Valencia's Soler. The team's new manager is Gatti, who led Nice to a fifth-place finish in Ligue 1.
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Juventus lost a number of key players for the game, including new signing Pogba with a meniscus injury, Di Maria, who moved from Paris, was also injured, Chiesa had a knee injury and goalkeeper Szczesny suffered a thigh muscle strain. Juventus are playing away from home without two starting wingers, a starting back and a starting goalkeeper.
Paris came alive at the start of the game and new coach Gatti adjusted his team's formation and tactics to a 343 formation, pushing two wingbacks, Mendes and Hakimi, forward, with a duo of Verratti and Vitinha controlling the ball in the midfield and Messi, Neymar and Mbappe up front.
This tactic immediately put pressure on Juventus, who played in a 352 formation relying heavily on three center backs and two wing backs, placing Cuardrado and Kostic on the wings, with Rabiot, Paredes and youngster Miretti trying to stabilize the midfield, and a forward line that relied on Vlahovic and winger Milik to charge the ball, but Paris' possession quickly overwhelmed Juventus.
Photo credit: Sports Vision
The tactics of Paris are quite ingenious, it looks like the 343 formation focuses on attacking from the side, but it is not. It was noticeable during the game that Paris played a lot of vertical passes, which did not penetrate the defense directly, but by pulling Juventus' backs vertically. The much-vaunted Messi, on the other hand, played a flexible game, moving mostly in the center of the field, working back and forth with Verratti and Vitinha at the back. As Juventus were naturally too worried about Messi's breaking ability to foul him easily, Messi and the back were constantly making back-and-forth passes, leaving openings on either side as Juve's defenders and backs tried to pounce on them, at which point the ball was passed to Mbappe or Neymar on either side, and to the wingbacks, Mendes and Hakimi, if the two were being watched, which is when the attack was initiated with a side attack , as the center has been drawn by Messi and others.
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Juventus had obvious problems defending in midfield, with a lack of effective synergy between Miretti, Paredes and Rabiot looking like they were jogging. Within just five minutes Neymar scored with a first time overhead kick after an easy pick and roll allowed Mbappe to burst through the defense from the left.
The position was Rabiot at the back and Bremer at fullback, a new signing. Paredes did not step up to keep an eye on Neymar when he passed the ball, and Rabiot was slow to try and block Neymar, ultimately missing both.Bremer did not realize that Mbappe was rushing in for a pass, and when Neymar picked out the pass, Bremer turned around, but it was too late. It was actually a cheap mistake with a lack of defensive understanding, but Bremer can't be entirely blamed considering he was still at Doolin last year and this was the first Champions League game of his life.
Paris's vertical passing tactics were very effective, with almost none of the central area being crossed by direct passes, but rather pulling Juventus's backs through constant back and forth passes. This back-and-forth movement of the backs is not common and difficult; the central area is dense and without sufficient skill, the ball can easily be broken up and counter-attacked. Therefore, Gatti used two highly skilled players to support them in the center of the field.
For Messi, whose ability has slipped, it's relatively easy for him to play as a passing brain in this position, with both Neymar and Mbappe in his vicinity, and if the opponent is a little bit negligent, Messi can easily pass the ball. If that doesn't work, he can also pass straight back to the back four, or to Hakimi on the wing. in fact, keep passing like this, and if the opposition get an easy kick, Messi will surely fall down to get a set piece, a position where they can attack the goal straight away.
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Juventus was kept under pressure and the midfield was soon in disarray. In the 22nd minute, Verratti picked up the ball on the right and passed it directly to Mbappe at the top of the arc, who played a two-on-one with Hakimi, who raced in from the right, and when Hakimi flicked the ball back in, Mbappe scored again with an overhead kick from 12 yards.
Mbappe is in great form, no doubt about it. He's now the "Mbappe", the "Mbappe Director", but the goal had nothing to do with vertical passing, Juventus missed Hakimi from the wing and let him in, and with no midfielders in the center of the field to guard Mbappe, the goal looked like an unguarded practice shot! The goal was like a practice shot without defense.
