On Tuesday night, on the outskirts of central Paris, inside Parc des Princes, we witnessed a thrilling six-goal fixture between two formidable clubs.<\/p>\n
Paris Saint-Germain \u2014 the defending back-to-back Champions League title-holders \u2014 came out victorious in a 4-2 victory against Barcelona, and the evening gave us magical pieces of individual brilliance.<\/p>\n
From Desire Dou\u00e9\u2019s opener to Lamine Yamal\u2019s surge inside the box and Vitinha\u2019s half-volley finish, there was magic across the 90 minutes. But in the end, the French giants came out victorious in a battle that perfectly exemplified the football equivalent of the irresistible force paradox<\/i>, or better known as an immovable object facing an unstoppable force.<\/p>\n
\u200bIt\u2019s important to paint a picture of the current moment, as times in France have been marred by violence and unrest due to nationwide protests as a result of school conditions, teacher shortages, and poor infrastructure, so the worry was whether this match would go on at all as more important issues are at stake. But the interior ministry confirmed the go-ahead for the fixture, and for one evening at least, football gave joy to the French with a resounding victory against a Spanish side who, up to this point, had been beating opponents with nothing left to spare.<\/p>\n
\u200bBut tonight in the French capital, the Catalans met their match as the loss came against a team led by one of its own, the wonderful Luis Enrique \u2014 who loves Barcelona more than himself.<\/p>\n
\u200bBut more on him in a moment. Let\u2019s get back to these two giant clubs.<\/p>\n
(Photo by FRANCK FIFE \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n \u200bThe argument \u2014 and it\u2019s the correct one \u2014 is that PSG and Barcelona are arguably and currently the best two teams in Europe, and in this match, there was little room to dispute the statement. From the 30-man list of the Ballon d\u2019Or nominations, 13 of them play for both these sides. The talent is undeniable.<\/p>\n \u200bFrom a managerial perspective too, we are talking about two magnificent tacticians. For Bar\u00e7a, there is the German Hansi Flick, who is a daring, high-press aficionado constantly encouraging his side to move rapidly up the pitch with little consideration for what happens defensively. He has been a major reason for Barcelona\u2019s domestic success; this season, they average four goals a match, which is just unbelievable.<\/p>\n But in Europe? The Champions League dream for Barcelona continues, as the Catalan club has not won it since 2015\u2013a side back then that had the famously dangerous MSN consisting of Lionel Messi, Luis Su\u00e1rez, and Neymar Jr as it achieved the historic continental treble. An objective led by \u2026 yup, you guessed it: Luis Enrique, PSG\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n (Photo by FRANCK FIFE \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n \u200bIn fact, PSG earned 10 shots on target in the first half, which, per Opta, is the highest number against Barcelona since 2003-2004. Had it not been for Joan Garc\u00eda, the damage at the break could have been worse than 1-0, a goal scored with absolute beauty by the aforementioned Dou\u00e9. Both sides collectively delivered 40 shots in total, but PSG led with 22, almost always pushing the fixture to its side.<\/p>\n \u200bThe thing about this match is that it reminded me of Jurassic Park, where Barcelona\u2019s Tyrannosaurus Rex fought hard against PSG\u2019s velociraptors. The French side simply has too many weapons, even when Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 had to come off injured. Barcelona couldn\u2019t handle the aggression; it was overwhelmed by its adversary, and even though their hopes rose slightly thanks to Xavi Espart\u2019s goal in the 55th minute and the incredible Lamine Yamal netting another one in the 79th, Flick\u2019s side could not cope.<\/p>\n \u200bAnd this is PSG. A formidable monster, or rather a group of them, who want nothing more than to maul your very core.<\/p>\n \u200bAnd not even Barcelona can escape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY On Tuesday night, on the outskirts of central Paris, inside Parc des Princes, we witnessed a thrilling six-goal fixture between two formidable clubs. Paris Saint-Germain \u2014 the defending back-to-back Champions League title-holders \u2014 came out victorious in a 4-2 victory against Barcelona, and the evening gave us magical pieces of individual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}