Yamal then posted a picture of himself from Spain‘s Euro 2024 triumph, accompanied by the words: "Pressure? I’m back and the mission is back too." The mission in question was Barcelona‘s bid to prove themselves the best team in Europe – which Yamal’s team-mate Pedri insisted they already were on the eve of the game against PSG.
Admittedly, there’s nothing wrong with self-belief; on the contrary, it’s absolutely essential at the highest level of sport. But there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and the problem with big talk is that it can make you look ridiculous if you don’t back it up. Wednesday night was a perfect case in point.
Yamal then posted a picture of himself from Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph, accompanied by the words: “Pressure? I’m back and the mission is back too.” The mission in question was Barcelona’s bid to prove themselves the best team in Europe – which Yamal’s team-mate Pedri insisted they already were on the eve of the game against PSG.
Admittedly, there’s nothing wrong with self-belief; on the contrary, it’s absolutely essential at the highest level of sport. But there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and the problem with big talk is that it can make you look ridiculous if you don’t back it up. Wednesday night was a perfect case in point.
One can certainly understand why Barca were in high spirits ahead of the visit of PSG.
After beating Real Madrid four times during last season’s domestic treble triumph, they’d made an undefeated start to their Liga title defence, taking 19 points from a possible 21 to sit top of the table after seven rounds of action, while at the same time kicking off their Champions League campaign with an impressive 2-1 win over Newcastle at a raucous St. James’ Park.
They’d also achieved all of this despite being shorn of the services of Yamal, their most wondrous attacking talent, for four matches in all competitions, so even accounting for the ongoing absences of Raphinha and goalkeeper Joan Garcia, Barca were in good condition going into the midweek match at Montjuic – unlike their opponents.
We knew well in advance that PSG would be without their captain (Marquinhos) and entire first-choice forward line (Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue) for the game in Catalonia. However, they also had to make do without key midfielder Joao Neves, who pulled out during the warm-up.
The net result was PSG taking to the field without six members of the starting line-up that destroyed Inter in last season’s Champions League final: one by choice (Gigi Donnarumma) but five others through injury.
Consequently, the feeling before kick-off was that Luis Enrique‘s side was there for the taking; that Barcelona had a glorious opportunity to make a serious statement of intent just two rounds into the new Champions League season. As Vitinha pointed out, though, it was PSG who sent a message to all of the pretenders to their throne.
“It happens sometimes,” the Portuguese mused after his team came from behind to win 2-1 at Montjuic. “There are often statements made before matches, it can happen. But we don’t give a damn. We don’t care, we just want to play the match and we won, so we’re happy about that.
“I’m proud of this team because it’s happened several times before that we’ve turned a game around. But you had five players who normally start who aren’t here, so you have some kids who play or come on and do very well. Then, other players who play less often came on and gave a great response.
“We were behind against one of the best teams in Europe away from home, and even then, you manage to come through in the second half and turn the game around. It’s a great statement from our team.”
For Barca, though, it was a dressing down.
The Blaugrana are a scintillating sight in full flight. In fact, they’re arguably an even more exciting side to watch than PSG because Hansi Flick’s high-risk approach makes goals a guarantee.
It, thus, didn’t come as a surprise to see them score for a club-record 45th game in a row, on Wednesday evening. They began the game brightly, too, and Yamal really did look like a man on a mission.
Just three minutes into the game, he danced past three PSG players wide on the right flank, while he was also involved in the lead-up to the game’s opening goal, which came courtesy of Ferran Torres, who tucked away a lovely first-time pass from Marcus Rashford 19 minutes in.
Barca didn’t build on their strong start, though – or perhaps more accurately, they weren’t allowed to, because the longer the half wore on, the stronger and indeed bolder PSG became.
As Flick conceded afterwards, despite the best efforts of Pedri and Frenkie de Jong, Vitinha u0026amp; Co. took control of the contest from around the half-hour mark, and would never relinquish it.
Nuno Mendes winning his individual battle with Yamal was also key to PSG becoming the first team to win three consecutive games away to Barcelona.
Just as he had during Portugal‘s Nations League win over Spain during the summer, the left-back frustrated the life out of the Ballon d’Or runner-up – so much so, in fact, that Yamal even tried to get the referee to give Mendes a second yellow card just after the hour mark, even though it was Fabian Ruiz who had felled the winger.
It was a classless show of weakness and reflective of the fact that Nuno was having a far bigger influence on the game – even from an offensive perspective.
Whereas Yamal failed to register either a goal or assist, Mendes created PSG’s crucial equaliser just before the break with a stunning surge up the left wing and beautifully-weighted pass into the feet of goal-scorer Senny Mayulu.
The interval provided Barca with a welcome opportunity to reset and things could have turned out very differently had the terribly disappointing Dani Olmo stuck away a glorious opportunity midway through the second half.
However, Barca were already fading by that point,with both Pedri and De Jong exhausted, primarily because they were spending more time than they’re used to chasing the ball than passing it.
“It was a pain,” defender Eric Garcia admitted. “In the second half, we struggled a lot. They held their own physically because they had more possession. And when you don’t have possession, you get more tired, and we lost it a lot.
“So, they imposed their style and rhythm on us somewhat because, when a team presses you throughout the second half, that’s what beats you in the end.”
Essentially, Barca folded under PSG’s relentless pressure. They lost their shape and composure in the closing stages because they were no longer thinking clearly, making PSG’s winner – and the nature of it – utterly unsurprising, with Alejandro Balde getting completely caught out of position, thus allowing the magnificent Achraf Hakimi to bound forward and put the ball on a plate for Goncalo Ramos to score.
Flick was enraged by Ramos’ 90th-minute strike, because this wasn’t the first time he’d seen his side concede a late goal due to their inability to kill a game.
“When you’re defending at 1-1, you have to play more intelligently at the end of the game and this has not happened,” he said in his post-match press conference.”We have to be more structured and cover all spaces. You have to hold out for 90 minutes, the whole team has to defend, attack, be at a high level with the ball, take advantage of spaces, participate in possession.
“At PSG you saw that everyone knows how to take advantage of spaces, they want the ball… these are things to learn and improve.”
And Wednesday night really was a lesson for Flick and his players. “Today, there’s no point in saying that we’re at the same level as PSG,” the German humbly conceded. “But I believe in my team and we will work harder to reach the best level.”
There’s zero doubt that they can get there, too. Barca’s players already made remarkable progress under Flick as it is and if they keep their heads down – and their feet on the ground – their driven and demanding coach is more than capable of winning the Champions League with a club that hasn’t even made a final since lifting the trophy in 2015 (which only makes the Blaugrana’s boastfulness all the more surprising!).
Some doubts persist, though, over the coach’s incredibly high line, which was exposed by match-winner Ramos deliberately standing in an offside position to gain a head-start on Barca’s defenders before getting on the end of Hakimi’s cross.
“For me, being ahead of the back four but staying behind the ball is the best place for me,” the PSG striker said. “I just wait there. There’s a video of Harry Kane and he said something similar to what I did for the goal.” It’s fair to say, then, that we can expect to see even more forwards copying Kane’s approach to playing against Barca.
Tellingly, Ramos also had some very pointed words for the likes of Pedri and Yamal, who maybe missed the point of ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ – which is that vanity is the Devil’s favourite sin.
“If you’re the best, you have to show it on the pitch, not talk,” Ramos said. “We’re the European champions; I can’t say more than that.” And he didn’t need to; unlike Barca, PSG had let their feet do their talking for them.
