Dortmund vs PSG: Erling Haaland’s unconscious drive exposes French side's complex with Champions League
The Paris Saint-Germain players were taken aback, but not just by Erling Braut Haaland’s brilliant goal. There was also what happened just before their Champions League last-16 defeat at Borussia Dortmund. Manager Thomas Tuchel, already viewed with some doubt by a lot of the squad, decided to abruptly go with a different system than the one expected. Many of the players privately felt it was a factor in a flat performance, but there’s obviously a lot more to delve into than that. There’s also now a lot more to the whole tie.
Haaland certainly stole the show, but PSG’s ongoing struggles at this stage remain one of the Champions League’s most arresting stories.
The 19-year-old may well ensure this peculiarly French psychodrama only continues. What should be so galling for PSG was the way Haaland so assertively seized the stage, in such contrast to the constrained performances of their stars. This was the teenager’s first ever appearance at this level, and undeniably the biggest game of his career so far, and he put in the kind of Champions League display that the French champions are still waiting for from so many of their biggest signings.
Those who know Haaland talk of a distinctive focus and drive to him. He doesn’t think about the game too much, but just goes and does it. That could be seen in that second goal. He reminds of Bob Paisley’s famous quote about what to do in the box. Haaland just puts the ball in the net, and thinks about the options later. Except he doesn’t even need to be in the box.
Such drive stood out all the more here because of the indecision that seemed to stifle PSG.
Kylian Mbappe is of course well capable of such joyous abandon himself, as we’ve already seen so many times in his own career. Here, however, he was often forced to drop back to midfield and try clip balls over the top. The lack of mobility ahead of them made it feel even more futile.
There was then the actual decision taken over Neymar. He complained after the game that he didn’t agree with PSG’s caution following his recent injury, where they forced him to sit out all four games in the build-up to this one. The Brazilian insisted he would rather have played.
Then again, it wouldn’t be a modern Champions League season without some drama regarding Neymar and his physical condition at PSG.
It wouldn’t be a modern PSG season, meanwhile, without drama over the Champions League and the manager.
Problems just appear to inevitably be festering again.
And this is where Tuchel’s tactical approach was even more relevant. The former Dortmund boss’s relationship with the PSG players had already been soured by his comments after last season’s elimination to Manchester United, when they felt he “threw them under a bus”. Here, many felt his boxy formation prevented them from getting out of first gear.
It was all the more puzzling because they had become so accustomed to a more proactive approach they had been using for three months. Tuchel instead decided to go for something different on the eve of the game, in the manner of Pep Guardiola and how he similarly seems to so anxiously and needlessly second-guess himself for Champions League games.
It is the kind of move that only reinforces the view PSG have a complex about this competition. Worse was Tuchel’s rationale. When it was put to him whether they had actually practised this before, the German cited last week’s French Cup win over Dijon. This comment may have been much more loaded than he realised.
That match was a 6-1 win and, as has become standard discussion around clubs like PSG now, such easy victories are hardly adequate preparation for a competition of this standard. They may even be counter-productive.
There were moments of the game when it felt like PSG were surprised that Dortmund just weren’t allowing the usual space they’re accustomed. There was also no real movement or electricity to try and force it.
It was all so passive. That was maybe one of the more striking things about this performance.
PSG’s recent history of calamity at this stage has been so chaotic.
Is there a danger, after all that, they now go out of this competition rather meekly? A tepid 1-1 draw in the second leg? Even if they avoid that and streak ahead in Paris, they’ll still have to weather the inevitable psychological doubt late on that comes from that recent history.
There’s so much to navigate here.
In all instances, they’re going to have to display the assertiveness of Haaland. This team of stars is going to have to take the lessons of a 19-year-old.
