For PSG, it works in London against Arsenal in the Champions League

Ultra-dominant, then resilient, then calmly managing, Paris-SG left London with a well-deserved 1-0 victory against an Arsenal team that may have underestimated, as crazy as it may seem, a team that arrived across the Channel with the scalps of Liverpool and Aston Villa under its belt. The passivity of Arsenal's players in the first half, then the majestic slowness with which English coach Mikel Arteta made substitutions, tell a bit about it. The Parisians were more intense, more courageous, more committed: they are a hundred minutes away from a European final.

If every match is an adventure, those of Paris-Saint-Germain have been marked out for months. The club's coach, Luis Enrique, explained things like this: when the French champions play with a low block, in front of their goal (defensively, if you will), the opponents give themselves up and leave spaces behind them that the Parisian attackers, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembélé, or Achraf Hakimi, devour with gusto. PSG is more dangerous offensively this way. So, low block? No, because the PSG defenders (Pacho, Marquinhos, Hakimi) struggle under pressure. And weaken the team in this configuration. Even if it means being less comfortable offensively, they need to have the ball and play at the opponent's place. They therefore need ball control. What comes down to impact, combat, and then technical quality: the Parisians' first half was therefore twice exemplary, making the Gunners spectators of the match as surely as those who watched it from the stands. The theory of a psychological blow after Dembélé's early goal (0-1, 4th) does not hold water: the English had already been juggled before the goal, 27 passes and one minute ten seconds before the French international's strike.

In truth, João Neves and his teammates bit into the ball everywhere, demolishing their opponents (four out of five duels won in the first half hour, a crazy proportion) and putting into orbit a luciferian Kvaratskhelia, decisive passer for Dembélé and who would not have stolen a penalty (16th) after having once again martyred Jurriën Timber, his opposite number. And if the Arsenal players reached the break and the lemons with a deficit and not three or four, they owe it to their pride, the only quality – indeed a minimum – that they were able to bring to the balance to hold the score. Gianluigi Donnarumma intervened well in a duel with Myles Lewis-Skelly just before half-time (45th) but one would swear that a possible goal would not have survived the video refereeing since the English defender seemed slightly offside.

The game quickly shifted from virtual to real after the break, with Mikel Merino having a headed goal ruled out for offside after a quick VAR error (47'). A monstrous save by Donnarumma from Leandro Trossard, who was facing the Parisian goal all by himself (56'), nevertheless indicated that the tide had turned, something the crowd – in the grand English tradition – had sensed before anyone else in the few minutes before the break. The game was then a fascinating one. Marquinhos and his ilk had to start a different match, very different from the first. They had to break the rhythm and not accelerate it, suffer at the back and not pass the ball around to the opponent, and take some offensive losses while the Parisians were struggling in the opening half-hour. Control Trossard while Dembélé was setting the tone before him. Play without the athletic influence.

That's football too. And the Parisians were just as remarkable in the exercise, only allowing Donnarumma to pick up a few easy aerial balls and roll his eyes. England's first substitution didn't come until the 80th minute of the match, a sign that Arteta found nothing to criticize in his players' individual and collective performance. Despite little threat, the Parisians were nevertheless the most dangerous in the final, with Bradley Barcola (84th) and Gonçalo Ramos (86th) nearly creating a chasm between the two teams before the return leg, in eight days at the Parc des Princes.