Jacob Steinberg and Barry Glendenning 

Champions League review: PSG lack killer instinct, Gent not spent and more

PSG have the talent but need the killer mentality to become Champions League heavyweights, hats off to plucky Gent and André Villas-Boas is hot property again
  
  

PSG
Edinson Cavani and Zlatan Ibrahimovic could not find the net against Real Madrid despite PSG dominating for long periods at the Bernabéu. Photograph: Marca/Sipa/Rex

PSG still searching for extra spark

Paris Saint-Germain once again demonstrated that they are not for away in their ongoing quest to climb to the summit of European football and once again they came up frustratingly short, losing not because they were massively inferior to Real Madrid but as a result of the kind of small details that make a telling difference at this level going against them. Laurent Blanc’s side were impressive for long stretches at the Bernabéu, creating several excellent chances and hitting the woodwork twice, but despite their best efforts they were still left to deal with that gnawing lack of professional fulfilment when the final whistle blew.

Something is still missing. PSG beat Barcelona 3-2 when the eventual champions visited the Parc des Princes in the group stage last season, a win that in theory should have furnished them with more self-belief, and they looked poised to join the elite when they knocked Chelsea out in the last 16 with a performance of rare authority, elegance and maturity, classily battling against the odds to overcome Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s controversial red card in the first half, winning the tie despite playing almost 90 minutes of the second leg at Stamford Bridge with 10 men and twice finding themselves a goal down when time was running out.

Had PSG’s moment arrived? Plenty of good judges suspected that it had. Yet PSG were weighed down by injuries and Ibrahimovic’s suspension when they faced Barcelona in the last eight and although Lionel Messi did not score in either leg, Neymar and Luis Suárez ran riot. Judging PSG on those matches would be unfair given the extent of their injuries, but it was possible to detect a pattern emerging. They were also comfortably beaten when they had visited Camp Nou in their final group match. PSG would have won the group if they had avoided defeat and they were on course to do so when Ibrahimovic gave them the lead in the 15th minute, yet they failed to press home their advantage and capitalise on Barcelona’s vulnerability. The way that the season panned out makes it easy to forget how out of sorts Barcelona were before Christmas.

Sure, Barcelona have better players than PSG and maybe that is all there is to the matter. Case closed, move along, nothing to see here. Yet PSG have been in control on more than one occasion against this calibre of opposition, only to let them wriggle free, as though this highly accomplished team suffers from a mental glitch that stops them making the most of their various gifts. It happened when they had Barcelona on the ropes in 2013, succumbing against a team that needed a wounded Lionel Messi to clamber unsteadily off the bench and set up the winning goal for Pedro Rodríguez, and it happened when they squandered a 3-1 advantage against Chelsea in 2014. The root cause could be anything from self-doubt to complacency to fear. It could be that they are still afflicted by self-consciousness, a desperation to prove to the established clubs that they belong in their company, a little like Manchester City. PSG know that greatness will not be achieved by repeatedly winning Ligue 1 against little or no competition. Something, perhaps, that PSG cannot control is timing their injuries. They can win the French league on autopilot, but their financial advantage lessens their domestic achievement and places extra pressure on their performances in Europe, making it a tricky balancing act for them to ensure that they are in peak condition when the knockout stage begins.

The other scenario is that they simply are not good enough. There is no need to overreach and say that a bottler gene is at the core of this team. Yet if PSG do have an obvious weakness against the best, perhaps it is that their strikers, Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani, are not ruthless enough in games where missed chances are invariably punished at the other end. Both are undoubtedly wonderful talents, but Ibrahimovic’s critics (yes, most of them are supporters of English clubs) have long pointed to his iffy record at the business end of the Champions League, while Cavani’s finishing can be flakey – Exhibit A here is when he rounded Courtois at Stamford Bridge last season and sent his shot against the near post from, admittedly, a tight angle.

Ibrahimovic shaped a clever early shot just wide against Madrid – you had to admire the improvisation and vision, but wide it went – and Cavani really should have scored when he was sent clear by Ángel Di María, only to take a poor first touch and mess up his attempted dink over Keylor Navas. Those misses were compounded by a woeful error from PSG’s goalkeeper, Kevin Trapp, who allowed Nacho to steer in the only goal after losing the flight of Toni Kroos’s deflected shot.

PSG’s 1-0 defeat means that they will probably finish second behind Madrid, which will probably make their task in the last 16 harder, and they should regard it as a wasted opportunity. Madrid have not been at the height of their powers and they are still … let’s be kind and say that Cristiano Ronaldo is still warming to life under Rafael Benítez. The Spanish giants were missing key players when they travelled to Paris a fortnight ago and instead of taking the game to them, PSG seemed almost overawed by the thought of beating mighty Madrid, mustering few worthwhile attempts on goal in a disappointing stalemate.

Yet ruling out PSG would be foolhardy given that they appear to be the strongest team behind the usual suspects, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Madrid (Manchester City may argue otherwise and justifiably so after their victory over Sevilla). They have a tough, resolute defence when David Luiz is switched on and not trying too much, a sophisticated, stylish midfield and raw incision on the flanks following the signing of Di María, whose ordinary performances for Manchester United should be placed into the context of his family’s struggle to acclimatise to north-west England. Di María, who struck the bar with a free-kick on Tuesday night, was the man of the match when Madrid beat Atlético Madrid in last year’s final and there is not a full-back alive who relishes marking the Argentinian when he is on form. Despite the doubts about the potency of Cavani and Ibrahimovic, they are two of the best strikers in the world and should flourish with Di María providing the bullets.

PSG did not do enough to beat Madrid but there are reasons for them to be encouraged about their chances of prospering if they meet again later in the competition. This can be a champion team if they develop that killer mentality. JS

Gent still in the running after stunning Valencia

Pos Team P GD Pts
1 Zenit St Petersburg 4 6 12
2 Valencia 4 0 6
3 AA Gent 4 -1 4
4 Lyon 4 -5 1

Hats off to plucky little Gent, who electro-shocked their hopes of making the knockout stages back to life with an unexpected 1-0 win over Valencia to record the first Champions League victory in their history, courtesy of Sven Klum’s second-half penalty. With two rounds of group games to go, the Belgian club are just two points behind the Spanish side and remain very much in contention for a place in the last 16. Should they secure one, it would perhaps be the story of the tournament thus far. Having saved themselves from financial oblivion at the end of the 1990s through judicious wheeling and dealing in the transfer market, Gent have since become the model of a small but beautifully run club. In 2013 they upped sticks from their old home the Ottenstadion to the Ghelanco Arena, in a move that has resulted in their average attendance almost doubling to 18,500, resulting in huge increases in matchday revenue. Meanwhile on the field, their coach, Hein Vanhaezebrouck, has performed miracles to turn a group of fairly mediocre players into national champions ahead of the traditional Belgian powerhouses of Anderlecht and Club Brugge, then keep them competitive in the Champions League. The Belgian minnows were expected to be Group H whipping boys, but have turned out to be anything but. BG

Clubs should be falling over themselves to hire Villas-Boas

As difficult as it is to praise a club boasting so many charmless fans, one can’t help but be impressed by the ease with which Zenit St Petersburg have already strolled into the knockout stages with two matches to spare after four wins from four games. Their manager, André Villas-Boas, is due to leave at the end of the Russian league season. The Portuguese has been a big hit in Russia since taking over in March 2014, but turned down a new contract at the beginning of this season, which he declared would be his last in charge of Zenit. On Wednesday night he reiterated his decision, insisting life in Russia, away from his family, is starting to get him down.

“At different moments in different situations I get asked these questions,” he told Zenit’s website, upon being asked if he’d reconsider his position. “I am very happy to be coach of the Zenit, but you know that my family lives in Portugal, and it is not easy. I am particularly pleased that we have reached the next round. It is important for the Zenit and Russia in the Uefa coefficients.”

While Villas-Boas may have certain Mourinho-esque shortcomings in the people skills department, he is clearly a knowledgable man with obvious talent as a manager. He was never made to feel particularly wanted by supporters, players or the press pack during two previous stints in the Premier League, but would clearly be an asset to any ambitious club should he ever deign to return. BG

Oh Arsenal …

Despite boasting such stellar names and Premier League has-beens as Brown Ideye and Pajtim Kasami in their starting XI, Olympiakos now sit six points ahead of the Gunners with two games to go. We’re guessing the famously myopic Arsène Wenger didn’t see that coming. Without wishing to riff on the pain of unhappy Gooners, our player of the week award goes to the Greek side’s Felipe Pardo. The Colombian came off the bench to score twice in the come-from-behind win over Dinamo Zagreb to compound the misery of Arsenal fans already distraught at sight of their team being ripped to shreds by a Bayern Munich team playing in second gear. BG

Winners and losers

Winner … Stephan Lichtsteiner

What a comeback the Juventus and Switzerland right-back made against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Lichtsteiner recently had to undergo heart surgery after he suffered breathing problems in a match against Frosinone in September and tests indicated he was suffering from an atrial flutter. He needed a month to recover after his operation and he had only been back in training for two days before starting and scoring against Gladbach, volleying in Juve’s equaliser after he was brilliantly picked out by Paul Pogba, whose stabbed pass with the outside of his right foot will go down as one of the assists of the season. It was gutsy stuff. JS

Losers … Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Borussia Mönchengladbach

With just two rounds of group games to go and only Manchester City, Real Madrid and Zenit St Petersburg assured of their places in the knockout stages, there are still 27 teams in with a chance of qualifying for the 13 remaining places. The prospects for some – hello Arsenal! – look bleak, but where there’s life there’s hope. For Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Borussia Mönchengladbach, all hope of playing further in this competition has evaporated. The Israeli champions lost 3-1 at home to Porto and go into the next round of matches with no points and just one goal to their name in Group G. As mentioned above, Gladbach were unable to carry the fine Bundesliga form that brought them six consecutive victories under new coach André Schubert into the Champions League, allowing 10-man Juventus to rescue a point at Borussia-Park. For the German side, the Europa League remains a possibility, but the European jig looks as good as up for Maccabi already this season. BG

Further reading

Stat time

Best images

And finally …

Jesse Lingard proved why perseverance pays off in Manchester United’s scratchy 1-0 victory over CSKA Moscow. The young winger was given another chance to impress by Louis van Gaal and although he started brightly, he was beginning to frustrate the Old Trafford crowd with some questionable decisions towards the end of the first half, and he missed a glorious chance when he blazed over from close range after excellent work on the right by Ashley Young and Juan Mata. Yet Lingard never stopped trying, causing problems for CSKA’s full-backs with some darting runs, and Van Gaal decided not to take him off when other managers might have substituted the 22-year-old. Young players need to learn and they need to feel wanted and in the end Van Gaal’s faith was rewarded when Lingard set up Wayne Rooney’s winner by cushioning a volleyed cross into the middle. In a way, Lingard’s willing endeavour has set an example for his team-mates to follow. JS

 

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