A spectacular game from us, but the Fede sub was instrumental in the collapse. You can't take him off as we simply revert to the swiss cheese defense we put on in Paris. A bunch of bright spots but you have to feel for the boys after they put in a shift. Isco and Hazard floored me with their play. They broke Parisian ankles all day. Onto the next one.
Dissapointing result but all in all result wasn't that important. Already qualified and couldn't make first spot anymore even before we started this game. Important thing was the performance and the performance was really good. Great team performance. Good pressing, played some lovely fluid football. Benzema with 2 goals, Loved the interplay between Hazard-Isco-Benzema, Valverde continuing his impressive form. Hopefully Hazard's injury isn't a bad one.
Fantastic and the best I’ve seen us play in some time. I would love seeing us play this way and this style. All the way up to the subs and the Varane error. Courtois also made a blunder which was correctly called back, but I don’t like his uncertainty. I am glad Modric came on, but I think better suited to switching Isco out for him. Should not have been Bale, but Jovic up top with Benzema coming deeper. A bit disappointing in the result but performance wise this is really a game that should set the standard.
I agree. Any performances below this level of intensity regardless of the opponent should not happen anymore. And Casemiro, Kroos, Modric simply does not work anymore.
Weren't you the same one complaining before the match about Zidane lineup and how he was setting us up? He was right. You (like always) are wrong. Just some more agenda driven nonsense by some miserable person who will look for anything negative probably because their life has no positivity.
Which coach can stop a player from making a Sunday league error? That too from apparently one of the best defenders in the world. My take on the goal is this, momentary lapse from Varane, probably he thought he was playing for France. Also, Bale was so damn unlucky. Another day, and PSG would have been down by 3,4 goals easily. I would say Zidane's work this time round is more impressive, so much gloom and doom,yet slowly but steadily he has been able to turn around the fortune of the team.
The line up was good, as i said pre match. We controlled the game 70 - 80 minutes, than varane decided to gift mbappe. same shit happens against barca over and over again. we dominate and ultimately play 2-2 or win 2-1. when they dominate they trash us. we played better than psg played in their stadium and they won 3-0.
Navas showed once again how he single-handedly saved his team from conceding a ton of goals .. This is exactly what he did so many times for us and the reason why we won or tied so many games . Valverde is such a key player for us right now
Possible opponents in Pre-Quarters as it stands: Bayern(confirmed 1st in group), City(confirmed 1st), Juve(confirmed 1st), Liverpool, RP Liepzig, Ajax.
Barca will top their group if they beat Dortmund tomorrow so there won't be any possible opponent from that group if that happens. Liverpool have Napoli at home and will top the group if they win that game. Hope we get RP or Lyon. Rest is tough.
A few us saw what Zidane was trying to do, it largely worked. Varane let the team down badly. Biggest take aways are how much a 442 can help us to control things, the movement of Fede, the questionable decisions by Varane and Courtois sloppy clearances and ridiculous tackle at edge of the box. Additionally, we had a tonne of shots and needed to be a bit more clinical which is a familiar theme.
Yeah.. Hope Napoli somehow claw 1st spot. At least we'd have Napoli, Leipzig and Ajax for example out of easier matchups. Bayern, City and Juve, that's tough. We really dropped the ball in group stages in this season. Would rather face Juve or City than Bayern.
It was so good to see Isco look somewhat like his best self, he was very dominant and his ability to play between the lines couldn’t be answered by PSG, Valverde’s presence helped give him the freedom he needed to show his stuff and it paid off. His link up with Hazard, Benz and Marcelo was so fluid, hope to see him being used this way in the future.
Of course, i am disappointed with the result, but the outcome probably does not change much in the standing. I do not think PSG will lose point against Galatasaray. My biggest disappointment is actually Hazard's injury.
There is a guy sitting on the bench that scored 25+ goals last year that we're not integrating into the team.
I don't agree with everyone that the Fede sub somehow caused our collapse. The first goal was purely a brain fart from Varane, and the second was a great play from Neymar and then a lot of luck in the bounce. We still dominated play after the sub and we still looked like we would score every trip down the field.
Of course it isn’t, but, before Valverde went off, PSG were simply not doing anything. He broke up their plays in midfield. Once he went off, they were easily reaching our side, which lead to that stupid blunder by Varane.
So, if you switched the goalkeepers, we win that game 5-0 right? I have no idea what Varane was doing, but that was also partially on Courtois wasn't it? I don't agree that ZZ messed this up in any way -- Fede has played a lot lately and you can't plan for your team coughing up a dumb goal! I will say that the midfield shape and positioning seemed off after he was taken out, though. It continues to amaze how good Kroos can be when he's actually interested. Ditto for Hazard. Bottom line for me is that ZZ appears to have at least temporarily found a new gear with this group. To my eyes this isn't merely down to individuals playing better but also a team that has better chemistry and cohesion and a rhyme and reason to their movement as a unit. Who knows if it'll last but we'll see!
It's not madness. Not everything is an agenda against your favorites. If it makes you happy I can admit that Zidane made me look like a fool with the starting lineup which dominated PSG.
Just re-watched the game, may not be a popular opinion, but Fede did look totally spent for the last 5-7 mins before he was subbed off. At the time I was also wondering why ZZ took him off, but in hindsight, I don't think it was a bad decision. Fede was one of the best (if not the best) players on the pitch and had run himself to the ground. Towards the end, he was not able to sprint up and down the pitch like he did for the almost all of 70-75 mins that he was on. As a lot of the posters have said, the 1st goal was all on Varane, he should have done better and the second was a combination of luck & nice move by PSG. I don't think taking off Fede resulted in either of the goals.
Isco is one of those players, like Lucas, that has been on Madrid fandoms shit list for some time now. But man, what a classy player on the ball, especially when given a roaming role like he had in this match Tactical brilliance from ZZ to start with that unexpected system. For large portions, psg was sitting incredibly deep because they couldn’t get the ball out of the back
Valverde had dominated Neymar all night, he's out and Neymar has space to work. Fede or not, after the subs PSG looked a lot more comfortable switching the ball and we defended as badly as ever.