In the Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League, there are no matchups left where bad teams represent their countries and leagues, but there are still standout matchups that people are talking about.
Paris Saint-Germain vs Liverpool was definitely one of those and is arguably the best matchup we have at this stage of the competition.
Both teams are in form right now, comfortably leading their respective leagues in France and England, and will probably crown themselves champions at the end of the season.
For PSG, Luis Enrique has successfully managed the rebuild PSG found themselves in over the last couple of years.
After spending heavily on the transfer market and signing the biggest names in the world—Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, and Lionel Messi—all three of their attacking superstars decided to leave the club over the last couple of years.
However, PSG are still standing as strong as ever right now.
It’s a bit of a different story with Liverpool, but the situation is similar in a way.
The club is also in year one after losing a superstar, but for them, it was their manager Jürgen Klopp who called it quits at the end of last season and was replaced by former Feyenoord coach Arne Slot.
Slot is instantly making a push to win the Premier League and the Champions League with the Reds.
In this post-match analysis and tactical analysis, we will examine the tactics used by the two teams in their first leg in the Round of 16, where PSG dominated Liverpool, and how the Reds still managed to better PSG.
Players & Formations Used
Both managers refrained from making huge tactical or personnel changes for the biggest game of the season so far.
Enrique lined his team up in the usual 4-3-3 formation they have used over the last couple of weeks.
Donnarumma started in goal, with skipper Marquinhos and Pacho starting as the centre-backs right in front of him.
Hakimi and Nuno Mendes were the full-back tandem, with the Moroccan superstar starting on the right defensive side and the Portuguese international starting on the left.
In midfield, Vitinha played as the center of the three midfielders in a more defensive position, with Fabian and Neves playing next to him.
In the attack, they were newly put together but still very lethal: a trio consisting of Barcola on the left, Kvaratskhelia on the right, and Dembélé as a false nine who threatened the English defence.
For Slot, he lined his team up in a 4-3-3 formation as well, but it was a hybrid with a 4-2-3-1 formation for Liverpool in this game.
Alisson started in goal, with Ibrahima Konaté and Virgil van Dijk playing as centre-halves and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson playing as full-backs.
Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberg played as a pseudo-double pivot, with Dominik Szoboszlai playing in a more advanced midfield position than both of them for most of the game.
In attack, superstar Mohamed Salah started on the right wing, with Luis Díaz, his counterpart on the left side, and Diogo Jota, the lone striker for the English team, starting up front.
Dominating Possession
From the start of the game, PSG dominated.
Liverpool, one of the most dominant teams in the Premier League, were unable to do much against PSG.
On Wednesday, the Frenchmen simply outclassed the Reds in every area, situation, and part of the game.
In the end, PSG was able to accumulate 70% of possession and played 746 passes with an accuracy of 88% compared to Liverpool’s 317 passes, of which only 74% were accurate, way below the standard that Slot’s men have set this season.
Enrique and his team played a suffocating attacking and counterpress that Liverpool were never able to break and were reliant on a lot of long balls, but with Jota starting in attack, PSG’s centre-backs were easily able to defend those.
In possession themselves, Les Parisiens never even let Liverpool get the chance to maybe attack their build-up and showed a lot of calmness on the ball and in their passing game.
PSG-Liverpool FC Post Match Analysis: Dying in beauty - tactics
Enrique’s men play in a distinctive way, and they are completely on a roll right now.
In build-up, their positional play after winning the ball is very interesting.
The right full-back in Hakimi is staying up the field, ahead of his holding midfielder and in a very wide position, while Mendes on the left is pushing inwards, forming a provisional back-three for PSG when playing out the back.
On this left side, Barcola was holding the width for PSG by dropping back into midfield and staying near the sideline, which allowed them to always have passing options there if Liverpool committed to the centre of the field.
This allowed PSG to have a ball circulation in their first line of play that Liverpool could never break up at all.
Another interesting thing was their midfield movement; it was nearly circular at times.
Here, Vitinha starts by making a horizontal run, which kicks off the rest of the movement from the other two midfielders.
PSG-Liverpool FC Post Match Analysis: Dying in beauty - tactics
Now Fabian pushes up the field because he was in the position that Vitinha had earlier.
This forces Liverpool to commit to that side of the field, and now, Neves completes the circulation by dropping back into the position that Vitinha was in earlier and is able to receive the ball between the lines.
Liverpool’s press was man-oriented at first, but they had to switch to zonal marking really quickly because they could not follow those movements.
Another thing that Enrique had his men do was to drop Dembélé back into the half-space.
Usually, teams do not like to vacate their presence up front, but this allowed PSG to have even more options in the passing game.
PSG-Liverpool FC Post Match Analysis: Dying in beauty - tactics
And if you thought it would stop after the first time, no, they were just doing it all over again, circulating their midfielders until one was able to find space between the narrowly shaped Liverpool players and then progressing the ball from there.
For the entire game, PSG was able to keep the ball for long periods of time and never allowed the Reds to get their own press going at the intensity they would have wanted to.
Facilitating Attacks & Creating Chances
But in the end, PSG not only dominated possession but also created many goalscoring opportunities.
27 shots and 1.6 expected goals were way more than Liverpool’s two shots and 0.3 xG, but on the other hand, 1.6 xG from 27 shots is not too great either; it just accumulated through sheer quantity.
Still, the Frenchmen managed to create a handful of very good goalscoring chances but simply failed to convert them.
Especially in the minutes around half-time, from the 30th minute to the 55th minute, PSG should have scored a goal but failed to do so.
Obviously, they scored a goal, but Kvaratskhelia was offside for that, so it got overturned by VAR because of a couple of inches, but that did not help them at all.
PSG-Liverpool FC Post Match Analysis: Dying in beauty - tactics
They created most of their chances by playing through their midfield or winning the ball back quickly and then finding one of their wingers to accelerate play.
Kvaratskhelia and Barcola both were very aggressive after recoveries in this game.
They took a lot of 1v1 situations and carried the ball forward into the final third multiple times.
Dembélé then often made very good runs out of the centre, and with their good movement earlier, they were able to create chaos many times for Slot’s defenders.
Looking at the picture above, we can see four Liverpool players being pretty much in one line and both centre-backs stacking up because Konaté needs to step up while van Dijk has no option but to cover the depth behind his partner here.
PSG-Liverpool FC Post Match Analysis: Dying in beauty - tactics
Barcola simply dribbles towards the centre even more and fakes a shot into a beautiful turn that completely exposes Liverpool’s completely busted positioning and then is able to play an easy through ball towards Dembélé for the biggest chance of the game.
Overall, Enrique’s attacking trio played incredibly well, creating many chances and having many good shots from distance.
However, the Reds’ stacked attack was completely outclassed.
But did it matter?
No, even though they all played a great game, they all failed to convert their opportunities into the only thing that counts: a goal, which broke PSG’s back in this game.
And if we are talking about class, we have to talk about Alisson.
Nine saves and one better than the other, absolutely the best player on the pitch this game and the only reason Liverpool didn’t concede multiple goals and managed to stay in the game for 90 minutes.
The One Mistake
PSG played a beautiful game, and you could nearly describe it as perfect, holding one of the best teams to pretty much no shots and playing liquid football over the course of the entire game.
Enrique simply had his team besting Liverpool in every aspect of the game.
Well, every aspect but one, because the only team that actually managed to score was Arne Slot’s team.
PSG-Liverpool FC Post Match Analysis: Dying in beauty - tactics
Looking at how that came to be, we need to start pretty much from the start of the situation.
Liverpool managed to press for once and forced PSG back with one of the few long balls in this game.
The attackers all went into counterpressing immediately but were not able to get enough pressure onto Alisson, who was looking to absolutely launch the ball forward towards substitute Darwin in attack.
The first problem for PSG here was their defensive line.
Not only were two additional players suddenly in the line because they pushed up.
The two players did not manage to do so fast enough; captain Marquinhos is now a good amount of distance behind the line.
It plays two Liverpool attackers in the backs of his teammates onside, which takes everybody but himself out of the upcoming duel now.
PSG-Liverpool FC Post Match Analysis: Dying in beauty - tactics
Alisson’s ball comes down just in the final third.
As expected, Marquinhos is now forced into a physical duel against one of the most physically gifted strikers in the world, with one Liverpool attacker now roaming free on his way towards the goal.
Marquinhos manages to prevent Darwin from instantly heading the ball onwards to his teammate, but his teammates are not scrambling to recover position.
PSG-Liverpool FC Post Match Analysis: Dying in beauty - tactics
Unfortunately, all of them are now too focused on the centre of the field.
They managed to crowd Darwin but did not put any pressure on him, leading to a lot of open space on the right side of the box.
Other substitute Elliott then makes a perfectly delayed run into the box, receives the ball from Darwin, and finishes beautifully with his left foot towards the far post, but Donnarumma is not able to save it.
One chance, one goal, one win and a huge advantage for Liverpool heading back towards Anfield for the second leg next week, just because PSG was not able to defend one long ball all game long.
Conclusion
In the end, PSG were the superior team for 90 minutes on Wednesday in the Parc de Princes, but it just did not matter at all.
While Enrique had his team play with their usual playstyle and completely dominate possession, the team was not able to use the home-field advantage this time.
The fault does not necessarily lie with the attacking trio because they played a very good game, but in the end, you need to finish one of the attacks off and score a goal if you want to advance to the quarterfinals in such a prestigious competition.
Liverpool and Arne Slot got lucky.
Not a single player besides Alisson looked like he belonged at this level, and this needs to be a huge concern for the Dutchman.
But still, they are taking a 1-0 lead into Anfield, where they are one of the strongest teams in the world, so the Reds will be very happy about the game.
For PSG, it is going to be about not losing their head now.
Yes, the situation is not good for them, but with performances like this one, there are not many teams that can keep up with them at all, and if they can perform like that once again, advancing will still be in their own hand.
I’m looking forward to next week.
The second leg at Anfield will be one of the most interesting games of the season.
Jonas Bartsch is a football analyst who currently works for 360 Scouting as a Live and Video Scout.
Jonas previously worked for SV Stuttgarter Kickers and holds a UEFA C-Licence and multiple Scouting and Analysis certificates.