When Qatar acquired the PSG in 2011 the formula to raise the Parisians was clear: a lot of money and stars. Ibrahimovic, Beckham, Cavani and Di María were the first routilating names that gave the workforce, hired the majority based on the carrier. Already with more European cache, also thickening the amount of transfers to unsustainable figures for any club, Neymar and Mbappé arrived, the two most expensive signings in history. The icing on the strategy of the chromos was the arrival of Messi. The result was almost a decade of both dominance in France and failures in the Champions League, a tournament that remains the obsession of the entity chaired by Nasser al Khelaïfi.
Tired of dealing with the peculiar circumstances of the cracks and colliding again and again with the continental wall, only near the title in the final of the 2020, the Qatari Executive turned the plan. To opt for individualities, the whole went on. And to hire coaches rocked by the immediate results, dismissed lightly to the first slip, he opted for a technician and a medium -term project with the hiring of Luis Enrique in 2023. The Asturian, despite the initial doubts and criticisms when his idea began to assemble, is fulfilling the promise of creating a team with capital letters that no longer depends on any star after the last summer of Mbappé. The cúmen of his work, for the moment, was seen in the epic classification against Liverpool for the Champions League rooms.
I am very happy, we show that we are a real team. This is just the beginning “
Despite the defeat in the first leg, the French besieged in the Park of the Princes to the until now inabordable Reds, something that no one had done this season, and in Anfield they completed the feat with a flap of competitiveness, just what has missed the PSG all these years in critical situations. The other architect of the workforce is the Portuguese Luis Campos, aware as few in the signing market.
Pacho, an unknown central a few months ago, gave a chair of those who are defending the countless arrivals of the English, for all flanks. Hakimi had more problems to hold Luis Díaz, but Nuno Mendes contained Salah. Vitinha and João Neves, two midfielders who have no stars poster, gave a recital with and without the ball despite the suffocating pressure of those of Arne Slot. And in attack, Barcola, the scorer Dembélé and then Doué were three bullets that created danger as soon as they had a few meters to run. It was also a Malaysian drop Kvarathskhelia, signed for 70 million in winter, a memory that the PSG still has the money for punishment. It was only missing that Donnarumma was claimed, finally the hero of the Parisians with his two stops in the penalty shootout.
PSG players celebrate the victory in Anfield.
All of them, based on sacrifice, solidarity and tactical order, were at the service of a set capable of kneading possession, always with an ally near the spherical to pass, and to apply in defense without exception. Luis Enrique has created a block with hardly any fissures. The only lagoon in Merseyside were the corners against, topped most of the Liverpool.
The French champion, who last season, already with Luis Enrique, fell into the semifinals of the Champions League, is now a planned author to the millimeter by Gijón. It was not Marquinhos, the captain and in the club since 2013, the one who gave the harangue before the always tense and fateful penalty, but fight, erected as almost always in his teams in the undisputed leader of the costume and the dessert in the only star of the PSG, with permission of a demolé at his best. The Asturian pronounced a few words with his usual vehemence before his pupils transformed all the releases from the eleven meters into an overwhelming scenario like Anfield.
“This classification is very special to me and for the team. The players wrote the history of the PSG. We want to build something. We have the best coach in the world “
“This classification is very special to me and for the team. The players wrote the history of the PSG. We are not the best team in Europe, we have to be humble. We want to build something. I would have said the same if we had not classified ourselves in the first phase, and the same if we had lost today (yesterday). We have the best coach in the world, ”he explained to Khelaïfi, delivered to Luis Enrique and now more patient with football unpredictability.
Is this the best PSG of the Qatar era? They recently wondered in L’equipe. No one remembers in the French capital of the bad results at the beginning of the tournament, even to the edge of elimination. The PSG now flies. In his last 23 games he has only given up a draw and a defeat, in the first leg in Paris against Liverpool. The majority of players have improved their benefits and have revalued in the market after passing through the hands of the Gijón coach.
Donnarumma for the penalty to Darwin Núñez.
“I am very happy, we show that we are a real team. We made a very good game and we are proud of this great team. This is only the beginning, ”explained an exultant Luis Enrique about a PSG who, after many helm blows and accumulating a gleaming collection of chromos, is now a team with guarantees that is favorite to conquer, finally, his first orejona.
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