PSG imposes its power

Paris Saint-Germain reached the semi-final of the Champions League against the very brave Atalanta in a scuffle that had the dissonant cadence of singles vs. married matches. It is the tonic of football in times of plague and what usually happens when the playoffs are concentrated in 90 minutes. Big players weigh more than big organizations. Neymar and Mbappé rose above the game of their team, very poor throughout the night, to finish off a more organic Atalanta but lacking the necessary individual talent. With Ilicic self-exiled and Papu Gómez retired due to injury, Gasperini's team shut down.

Atalanta's defensive reference is simple. Each player is assigned a man who must follow the entire field. If the division of tasks is simple, the execution pushes the team to move on the ledge of a skyscraper. A lost heads up makes the goalkeeper the last man. The risk, when the rival has quality to move the ball, multiplies. If your rival is Neymar, a player with infinite resources in one on one, the mission is impossible. Mattia Caldara knew it from minute one. Gasperini was entrusted to him to monitor the Brazilian, the beginning and end of each PSG maneuver.

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Atalanta Sportiello, Djimsiti (Palomino, min. 59), Mattia Caldara, Rafael Tolói, Marten de Roon, Remo Freuler, Hans Hateboer, Robin Gosens (Castagne, min. 81), Duván Zapata (Jacopo Da Riva, min. 81), Alejandro Gómez (Malinovsky, min. 58) and Pasalic (Luis Muriel, min. 69) PSG Keylor Navas (Sergio Rico, min. 78), Thilo Kehrer, Thiago Silva, Kimpembe, Bernat, Marquinhos, Idrissa Gueye (Paredes, min. 71) , Ander Herrera (Draxler, min. 71), Neymar, Sarabia (Kylian Mbappe, min. 59) and Icardi (Choupo-Moting, min. 78)

The tie was decided in the 90th minute but could be resolved in the second. The play arose from the typical action rehearsed in training. The Atalanta men advanced to the opposite field pressing their peers, PSG circulated the ball towards Navas, and the goalkeeper shot long towards Neymar, who without getting rid of Caldara gave the ball with a very sweet touch to Icardi. The nine threw deep and there was Neymar after drawing a curve that left his marker without a chain. Gaining ten meters of freedom, Neymar found himself with the ball controlled before the rival goalkeeper, Sportiello, who reduced the angle. In a hurry, Neymar opened his right foot to place a shot that ended up going out. Tuchel, who was watching the action while sitting on a refrigerator, turned livid.

Long balls to the figure

The play illuminated the coordinates of the match. Atalanta came out to contrast PSG without complexes, determined to assume all the necessary risks with a pressure that exposed them to disaster but that helped them to occupy the spaces in an advantageous way when they recovered the ball and Papu Gómez moved it. Cornered in their half of the field by an adversary who only outdone him, the opulent PSG acted as minor teams do. Jumping pressure lines with long balls to the figure. There Neymar appeared, unstoppable in his inner game as well as anguished every time he stepped on the area.

Gómez replied to Neymar's threat, deploying himself as Marquinhos's stopper and as point guard, in a strenuous double facet. When he had the ball, he used it in a succession of crosses from the left and right that his teammates inevitably won to Navas' despair. The goalkeeper made three saves before Neymar dragged his team out of the confusion. Ander Herrera helped him put Caldara down again in a race that culminated in assisting Icardi, who saw her pass at the mouth of the area. Icardi's disconnection was notorious.

Atalanta only regained order and breath when the ball passed through Gómez. After 20 minutes the Argentine caused a foul in the midfield and when the game resumed, his teammates stormed the opposite field in a whirlwind. The ball went through Pasalic, De Room, Hateboer, Zapata and Pasalic, who sent it to the squad with a left-footed shot. The irruption of Tolói from behind at the critical moment when Zapata stepped on the area and took Kimpembe, when the PSG defense was trying to set marks, generated a confusion that the scorer took advantage of by entering the empty space.

Tuchel's team had the ball but, deprived of control of the midfield by a Marquinhos who feels more about defense than administration, they failed to dominate clearly. When he broke the pressure, he met the aggressive reply of some opponents who did not hesitate to do so. Either they entered strong or they left hand in hand with their doorman. Along that path, the Atalanta players were carrying yellow cards. Tolói, De Room, Freuler, Zapata and Djimsiti were designated by the referee. Late in the second half, these warnings weighed on the Italian team as much as the fatigue and physical problems accumulated throughout an endless season. With the hour consumed, Gasperini removed Gómez. Taking out the apparently injured leader was to signal the start of the retreat. Atalanta never again had control of the situation, even though Keylor's injury and his replacement by Rico gave him a little air.

The entry of Mbappé as the best player of the rival came out reflected the abysmal imbalance that was on the field. The best striker in the world, just recovering from an ankle injury, quickly wreaked havoc. First he disarmed Caldara, then he exposed Palomino. Three times he forced Sportiello to put on his gloves or his feet. Atalanta won on the scoreboard but was dying on the playing field, devastated by the impact of Mbappé, when in the 90th minute, after a cross from Choupo and a control from Neymar, the first fell, from Marquinhos. Three minutes later, with another pass from Neymar and an assist from Mbappé, Choupo himself - a 31-year-old veteran, invention of Tuchel - scored the final goal.