From our special correspondent at Anfield,
Seeing the faces of the Scoursers twist in disgust and hearing sighs of despair in the face of the icy realism of Ousmane Dembélé on his opening score at Anfield against Liverpool (2-0) is the kind of guilty pleasure that cannot be refused. There was indeed reason to be disappointed, even if the Reds would be very cheeky to complain about Parisian efficiency: their ambitions for a comeback would never have existed if PSG had scored as much as they should have in the first leg – and let’s not even talk about the robbery of the Parc des Princes by Arne Slot’s men in 2025.
However, if there is one thing to remember from these 27 stormy minutes between the start of the second half and the end of the break whistled by Dembouz, it is that this team has a formidable double-edged sword: resilience and efficiency. “We have a good mentality and we are a very strong team,” said Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the corridors of Anfield.
“Luck” and “suffering”, the keys to surviving the storm
A statistic to support the point: in four matches against Chelsea and Liverpool, PSG scored 12 times and conceded only two pawns. However, if we rely on the sacrosanct “expected goals”, Paris should have scored half as many (6.12 goals) and conceded almost three times as much (5.27). In other words, the European champion has become a punishment machine. And his chief punisher is called Ousmane Dembélé, whose stats during the knockout matches with PSG are worthy of the greatest.
“You must have a little luck,” Luis Enrique will admit at a press conference. We knew there would be suffering. We managed very well. But Liverpool would have deserved to score. » “You have to suffer to get to the end of this competition,” Dembélé summed up on Canal +. And what suffering!
Pacho is a monster, Safonov a wall
Invoking the power of friendship is not enough to explain the anomaly; concrete elements are also needed. For example, the existence of Pacho in the Parisian defensive line. No but seriously, what is this monster? The Team estimated his number of ground duels won at 74% before Tuesday night’s match. After the match, the number probably rose to 125% (sorry, we’re bad at math).
The Ecuadorian demonstrated that he possessed the gift of ubiquity because he took charge of replacing Nuno Mendes on the left of the defense – Lucas Hernandez was there to look pretty, we’ll come back to that – while keeping his job in the center. The guy is so impassable that Alexis Mac Allister, not knowing what to invent, tried to use his Argentine cunning to score a penalty at his feet. Fortunately for Paris, VAR exists.
Fortunately for Paris, Matvey Safonov also exists. Strong as he is, the Russian would have every time gone for this penalty that the referee was about to signal, as he lay down on Kerkez’s point-blank shot in the first period or Ngumoha’s heavy strike, just before Ousmane Dembélé’s first goal.
Showing so much accuracy and serenity in a typically English weather configuration (= heavy, disgusting rain) is a performance at least as respectable on the part of Safonov as his last 270 minutes without conceding a single goal in C1. “He did his job in the best possible way,” congratulates Luis Enrique. Not quite, according to the person concerned: “There were a few mistakes, but that’s for sure but I can be happy with this match. » Lev Yashin and Igor Akinfeev may tremble, Safonov arrives to shake up the Russian hierarchy.
Sending Lucas Hernandez against Olise, is that reasonable?
Among the players that PSG wanted above all not to see get injured, Nuno Mendes was in the top 5 – and not fifth. Unfortunately for the Parisians, the Portuguese international asked to come off at the end of the first period after a muscular alert. He was replaced by Lucas Hernandez, who can be congratulated for knowing not to get sent off stupidly when his teammates were having trouble. His only feat of arms of the meeting.
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For the rest, Mohamed Salah showed him around the neighborhood. Late almost every time, the Frenchman owes his salvation to the VO2max of João Neves and the strength of Pacho. It was funny because PSG ended up passing without making a fuss. Except that Nuno Mendes is visibly injured and there is a world where Luis Enrique will have to send Hernandez to defend on Michael Olise in 15 days. And this time it is not said that the resilience of Parisians is enough to get around the problem.
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