Le Classique Review: PSG is just too fast
Even with a man down, Paris Saint-Germain were able to score two counter-attack goals at the Stade Vélodrome.
Even though Olympique Marseille isn’t having the best of seasons this year, which could be described as mediocre at best, Paris Saint-Germain continue to show why they are dominating Ligue 1 this year. Conversely, Marseille is showing why “traditional French League football”, which had always been known as a tenaciously defensive league, might be a thing of the past.
First, let’s take a look at the first goal scored by PSG. With one of many turnovers by OM, Vitinha wins a 50/50 heading full-speed ahead toward the Marseille goal. At first, many of the defenders were already back with a 3-on-3 situation. However, with Marseille defender Quentin Merlin missing a tackle on Vitniha, this created a 3-on-2 (and eventually 4-2 with Achraf Hakimi coming up the right). With the speed of Ousmane Dembélé to the right and Kylian Mbappe on the left, Vitinha passes to a breaking Dembélé, who flicks it back to Vitinha for PSG’s first goal. Essentially, the Marseille defense was flat-footed, made bad decisions, and couldn’t keep up with the speed of PSG.
The second goal wasn’t much better for Marseille. After a failed corner, Marseille central defender Samuel Gigot, who came up to the far post for the corner, sends the ball in the other direction, leading to another counter attack, which left the Marseille defense again flat-footed, out of position, and not knowing what to do. And remember, this was all with PSG being one man down.
One thing was apparent, and that was that the OM defense was slow and confused. Even though Marseille’s offense was able to keep up with PSG, and in many ways outplaying them, the slightest of errors is something that PSG can pounce on and turn it into goal, which is exactly what they did. And with their speed, OM didn’t have a chance.
Other teams have been able to give PSG a handful this season, and OM did as well on Sunday. But for some reason, the OM defense was just not up to the challenge at the Stade Vélodrome. Does this mean that OM is done? Well, for European competition, it’s possible. If they don’t get a Champions League position, it hard to see them pushing hard. But this is not the OM that we have seen in the past.
So is this a change for Ligue 1? Not really. It’s still a pretty defensive league. There have been a number of shutouts and goalless matches this year. However, for OM, it’s just a situation of PSG being the luckier of the teams.