Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 9y

Barcelona cracks uncovered by PSG in UCL humbling - press reaction

The Catalan media reaction to Barcelona's 3-2 Champions League group stage loss at Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night took its lead from Blaugrana coach Luis Enrique's post-game comments that his side had paid dearly for individual mistakes made during the game.

In Madrid the analysis was more cutting -- with pundits saying the result and performance showed how previous optimism over Barca's unbeaten start to the season had been overstated as Luis Enrique's side flunked their first real test of the campaign.

The Barca-boosting Mundo Deportivo's cover said "Expensive Errors" over a photo of Barca goalkeeper Marc Andre ter-Stegen and defenders Jeremy Mathieu and Jordi Alba looking disconsolate. Inside its match report admitted the team had "suffered" but said they might have equalised late on.

Sport had a similar image on its front -- but this time it was Lionel Messi, Neymar and Andres Iniesta looking upset. Their headline said: "With Messi and Neymar, it's not enough," while pointing out that "the 'cracks' respond, but the defence gives in."

Over in Madrid, Marca's online match report was less sympathetic. Headlined "PSG undress Barca," it said that the Camp Nou side's weaknesses had been ruthlessly exploited by the Ligue 1 champions.

"Barcelona suffered their first defeat of the season against a PSG side who knew how to take advantage of the Blaugrana outfit's weaknesses.

"The mistakes in playing out from the back, the insecurity in the air of ter Stegen and the imprecision among Luis Enrique's kids made life easy for the French side."

AS' report in their print edition was even more scathing in its dissection of the performance: "PSG won 3-2, but the result did not reflect in any way the superiority of the French side against a disastrous, calamitous and headless Barcelona.

"Without ideas, Luis Enrique's side trusted everything in a stratospheric move coming off for Messi or Neymar. Besides that, they were a disaster in defence, not because of ter Stegen, who conceded the first three goals of the season.

"The full-backs were in tatters, the centre-backs were not centre-backs and from there you could see how PSG scored their first two goals from dead balls."

Conversely, the French media has heaped praise on Laurent Blanc's PSG side who went top of Champions League Group F and responded well to criticism over their domestic form.

An ecstatic David Luiz features on the front page of both sports daily L'Equipe and local tabloid Le Parisien.

L'Equipe's front page sums the night up in one word -- "Magique" -- while Le Parisien's main headline -- "They did it!" -- also reflects the euphoria in Paris.

Tuesday's win at the Parc des Princes extended PSG's unbeaten home run in Europe to 30 games. The Ligue 1 champions have also become the first French side to beat Barcelona twice in European competition.

In Le Parisien, Dominique Severac writes that both sides played some magical attacking football on an emotional night in the French capital.

"It's already one of the biggest games in the history of PSG, a legendary meeting for purists and dilettantes alike.

"It wasn't necessarily total football but in part total, with technical ability and tactical knowledge worthy of a knockout match like a quarter or a semifinal.

"PSG have just proved that they can win the Champions League by moving from words to action against Barcelona, after having beaten Chelsea (3-1) in April."

After a sluggish start to the season, L'Equipe said everyone had been waiting to see what PSG were really made of.

"On Saturday, in Toulouse (1-1), PSG seemed to be no longer able to remember what football looked like," Jerome Touboul writes in L'Equipe.

Not so three days later. Touboul hailed an "immense" performance from Javier Pastore and suggested that both the Argentine and "explosive" Brazilian attacker Lucas appear to play better when star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is unavailable.

"At this rate," Severac joked in Le Parisien, "Ibrahimovic will have trouble getting his starting place back."

Elsewhere, L'Equipe singled out former Chelsea centre-back Luiz for special praise: "This David is a Goliath" read the headline above the player ratings, which saw the Brazilian lead the way with 8 out of 10.

"If he needed an evening in order for him to be adopted by the Parc des Princes, it was this one!" the report read.

Most notably, the paper reported, his charisma had helped inspire his teammates.

Lucas and Pastore also got 8 out of 10, while Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani (5) was the one PSG player to receive less than a 7.

In contrast, Lionel Messi was the only Barcelona player to get a 7, while goalkeeper Marc Andre ter Stegen was rated the worst performer with 3 out of 10.

ESPN FC correspondent Marc Rodden contributed to this report.

^ Back to Top ^