Even after Barcelona lost 0-4 to PSG in the first leg of their Uefa Champions League round of 16 tie, I did not believe they were down and out.
My gut told me that if there is a team that could turn the tables in such a fixture, it was Barcelona. However, as it turned out, I was clearly naïve.
It did not cross my mind then that Barcelona’s eventual 6-1 win would not entirely depend on the firepower in their squad, as my faith in their ability had been premised. And, instead, it would require the hand of German referee Deniz Aytekin.
There was no cat in hell’s chance that Barcelona should have got any of the two penalties in that match. They were all fake, illegitimate and gifts intended to hurt the integrity of football, which would have ensured that Barcelona do not set a new record of making the Champions League quarter-finals for the tenth successive time.
But more importantly, PSG were denied an opportunity to knock out Barcelona, an occurrence which would have set them up for a possible first Champions League title. Instead, Ivan Rakitic is busy boasting how they (Barcelona) proved that they are the best team in the world.
That is not in dispute. But the best team does not have to rely on referees to get the job done. They play their opponents into submission, period! That is how much Neymar tormented PSG. Yet, if Donald Trump had watched the Barcelona/PSG tie on Wednesday night, he would have concluded that the Champions League is a rigged system for Barcelona.
Neymar runs into a falling opponent and wins Barcelona a penalty! Then Luis Suarez dives as Marquinhos closes him down and does not get booked for simulation but, instead, wins his team a second penalty. Incredible!
It does not reflect well on Uefa when the general public feel that Barcelona gets a lot of favours at this stage. It is from such experiences that there are perceptions Barcelona wins tightly contested games after the opponent has a man sent off. This is not a nice thing to hear.
But familiarity breeds contempt. And the scene at the Nou Camp was a bad one. In fact, at the 2018 Oscars, the Nou Camp should be in pole position to win the award for the worst picture, if there is anything to work as the antithesis for the ‘Moonlight’, best picture movie at the 2017 Oscars.
Therefore, as much as Barcelona’s recovery will go down as historical and unprecedented (they are the first team to overturn a four-goal deficit in the Champions League), it is watered down by what turns out to have been broad day thuggery on PSG. The PSG players became despondent, seeing how they were being shortchanged.
That said, PSG did not shed themselves in good light either. For crying out loud, how can a team with all the human resource they have, vying to win the Champions League soon, fail to defend a 4-0 lead?
To begin with, I need to understand what PSG coach Unai Emery’s plan was from the onset. He left Angel Di Maria and Javier Pastore on the bench. Unless they were not fully fit, but in a game away to Barcelona, Di Maria has no business being on the bench.
First, his presence on the field from the onset sends chills down the spines of many opponents because of how lethal he can be on offence. Not only does Di Maria provide immense width, which would have exposed Barcelona’s struggling defence, but he is supposed to offer PSG what Lionel Messi gives Barcelona – imagination.
That cannot be difficult to see. Besides, Di Maria is a goal threat. That attribute would have inevitably kept Barcelona at bay to a certain extent. The trick in beating Barcelona in the first leg was counter-attacking football, which they should have replicated.
That said, one cannot help wondering how such an experienced lot of players can fail to hold out for ten minutes at most without conceding two late goals as they did. PSG just proved they are not up to the task. No steel, no balls! Any amount of thuggery can be thwarted if you are organized. PSG were certainly not!
jovi@observer.ug