Tag: PSG

Arsenal were beaten 1-0 by Paris St-Germain in the Champions League semi-final first leg at Emirates Stadium.

Mikel Arteta’s side had good chances through Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard but could not find a goal to level the match.

Here, we look at what was learned from the match.

Arsenal miss Partey

The biggest challenge for Arteta coming into this match was how he was going to set up in the absence of suspended midfielder Thomas Partey.

The 31-year-old is a key part of the Gunners midfield and picked up a cheap yellow card in the final few minutes of the match with Real Madrid in the quarter-final which meant he missed this game.

With the injuries Arsenal have and with Mikel Merino playing as a central striker in recent weeks, Partey’s absence caused Arteta to shuffle his team around.

Merino dropped into his natural midfield position, Declan Rice moved deeper to a number six role and away from the number eight role in which he produced two player-of-the-match performances against Real Madrid. Trossard came in as striker.

PSG were dominant from the start of the match and had 75% possession in the opening 15 minutes, taking the lead in the fourth minute with an Ousmane Dembele strike.

Dembele so often drifted into the space between Arsenal’s backline and their midfield, and PSG scored the opening goal when he made that movement.

The question Arteta will be asking is – if Partey had been in the team, would he have been able to stop Dembele receiving the ball before giving PSG the lead?

Partey has been in excellent form in recent weeks and will be crucial to the Gunners next week if they are to overturn the defeat and progress to the final.

Kvaratskhelia and Timber – a key battle

Paris St-Germain’s quality would not have come as a surprise to Arsenal or Arteta.

The French side have knocked out two Premier League sides in Aston Villa and Liverpool to reach this point and beat Manchester City in the league phase of the competition.

However, when Arsenal played and beat PSG in the group stage in October they did not have Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who signed for the club in January for a reported 70m euros (£59m) plus add-ons.

Jurrien Timber has arguably been Arsenal’s player of the season because of his consistency, quality going forward and his ability to play anywhere across the backline.

But the Netherlands international had a tricky first half up against the PSG left winger.

Kvaratskhelia got the assist for the goal, driving into the box and pulling the ball back for Dembele to guide into the net from the edge of the box.

The Georgian was direct every time he recieved the ball and Bukayo Saka came back to help Timber defend as Arsenal looked to double up on him.

Timber looked more comfortable in the second half when Arsenal were able to have more possession and he was able to get forward more himself.

But, it is the first time in a long time that an attacker has caused the Arsenal defender such problems.

‘If we don’t have the ball, we die’ – Rice

Those were the words of midfielder Rice in the Arsenal pre-match huddle that were picked up by the TV cameras.

The fear that Arsenal would not have the ball played out as the hosts failed to get control in the match, with the away side dominating the ball for large parts of the first half.

Arsenal did get a foothold in the game in the second period and PSG, despite their fast start, finished the match on 52% possession.

Mikel Arteta said that it is “impossible” to control PSG for 95 minutes and that it was the “small margins” in the game that did not allow his team to pick up a positive result.

“I mean, this is one of the best, beating all the English teams, the best teams in this country,” Arteta said.

“So, you cannot dominate this team in 95 minutes. Impossible. Forget about it.

“And you have to understand what it means dominating them and in which area of the pitch.”

‘The margins were small’

It’s only half-time in the tie and Arteta says his side will approach the second leg the same way they did when going to Madrid with a 3-0 lead in the last round.

“We have to go to Paris and win the game,” he added. “We are more than capable of doing it.

“I saw two very good teams, but the margins are so small. They had efficiency in front of the goal. The keeper as well made a difference to see the result that we’ve seen tonight.

“I don’t know the percentage, but we have a lot of chances to be in that final. You have to do something special in the competition to have the right to be in the final. And the time to do it is going to be in Paris.”

Luis Enrique expects PSG to ‘suffer’

Donnarumma may have made two smart saves to keep Arsenal out but PSG also had chances to put the tie beyond the Gunners.

First Bradley Barcola pulled an effort wide and then Goncalo Ramos hit the crossbar late on.

And PSG boss Luis Enrique expects his side to “suffer” in Paris without that cushion.

“I think emotions are at that level in those kind of matches so it’s difficult to analyse,” he said. “Great atmosphere but we showed the kind of team we are.

“We tried to play our way and scored the goal early playing the way we play. We suffered sometimes but could have scored the second goal. The second match is going to be very tough.

“We need to prepare for the second match, it’s going to be difficult. The result means a little advantage for us. We are going to suffer, we know that. I think we can go to the final but there is still one match.”

BBC