At the Parc des Princes,
The regular followers of La Liga had warned us: “But yes, we have to be careful with this Girona team, they play really good football.” We were willing to believe them, especially since the third place obtained last season did not fall from the sky. But, we said to ourselves, for their first appearance in the Champions League, what’s more at the Parc des Princes, with a reduced squad compared to the previous season, that Michel’s men were still going to take the plunge against PSG.
What do you want, our chauvinistic side quickly returns when it comes to talking about football. And we were far from imagining that Paris would be collectively jostled in this way, in its home, during the first half. With, as a highlight, a sublime action of more than two minutes, with 53 passes, where all the players, except the veteran Cristhian Stuani, touched the ball, without the Parisians being able to do anything.
“A pride”
It all started with a saving tackle from Ivan Martin while Nuno Mendes had been served by Bradley Barcola (31’16). From then on, the Catalans would chain together passes, going from right to left and from left to right, trying to go forward, going back towards goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, restarting from the front, each time with a free man. It all ended in the 33’45, with a cross from Miguel well caught by the Russian goalkeeper Matsey Safonov, on one of his rare interventions.
During these two minutes and thirty seconds of possession, PSG pressed (rather clumsily, it is true), there was not a single technical error. A joy to see for the neutral spectator, a torture for the Parisian supporter, who even started to whistle his own team, unable to recover the ball. “It is a source of pride to play in the Champions League and to play it like this, with personality,” explained David Lopez, defender of Girona, to 20 Minutes when returning to this action. The team’s motto is to have the ball, to have personality, to try to attack and to have the initiative with the ball.”
“It made us dizzy”
This phase of play was even praised by Luis Enrique on the microphone of the Spanish channel Movistar + after the match: “We were superior to Girona, although at one point in the first half they gave us a round [comme si les Espagnols faisaient un taureau et que les Parisiens couraient dans tous les sens pour récupérer le ballon] and it made us dizzy. We had already warned that if we did not press well. It was difficult for us.”
The former FC Barcelona coach added another layer in a press conference: “They showed why they were at the top of the Spanish league for a long time last season and why they qualified for the Champions League. They showed that they have a top coach and that they are a top club. Girona plays for me much better than many teams in pot 3, 2 and even 1. I dare say it and I have no doubt about it. And it has been very hard for us.”
So much so that Luis Enrique had to make several adjustments at half-time to ensure that such an action would not happen again in the second half. “We sorted out a few details to be very vigilant,” commented Pacho, PSG’s solid Ecuadorian defender, in the mixed zone. “They played really well, and the goal was for them to have the ball as little as possible, because they are very good.”
“We gave a good image”
Apart from a small warning on Safonov’s goal, with a header from Stuani, Girona almost no longer existed in the second half, and all the beautiful collective play disintegrated, the short restarts transformed into long balls swung in front, and the passes in small perimeters into passes directly to the Parisians.
“Until the 60th, 70th minute of play, we played a very good game and gave a good image,” analyzed David Lopez. “Afterwards, they started to press more and they are really a good team. Unfortunately we lost at the last moment on a mistake, but we can’t blame Gazzaniga, without him we would probably have conceded a goal before. But we have to be satisfied with the image we showed.”
The image shown to the world, at least to the Parisian and European public, is what Michel, the Blanquivermells coach, also wanted to remember. “There is a feeling of pride. We gave a good image on the pitch, we are a humble team and we lived up to it for our first in the Champions League.” There is no doubt that with the quality of the game played, it will not be the last.