This Wednesday, Paris Saint-Germain faced SL Benfica as part of the third day of the group stages of the Champions League. Near PSG TVChristophe Galtier, coach of the capital club spoke about this meeting and this draw 1-1which leaves the two teams tied for the lead in this pool.
Galtier “we still had a good end to the first period”
“We gave a lot, we were not surprised, but we took two or three balls in depth which could have made us doubt. There was a real desire to go out very short to break the first curtain of pressure from Benfica, and then create some play with spaces. In the first 20 minutes it was difficult, but after that we still had a good end to the first period, with good technical mastery.
Galtier “When we won the ball, we may have lacked mobility and depth”
“We scored a good goal and I think that at that time Benfica had more and more difficulty in pressing, but also played long balls which made us fall back. We take this goal a little unfortunate, even if Benfica created situations in the first period and Gigio was very effective on balls in depth.
In the second half, we harassed the carrier a lot better, won a lot more balls higher up, which gave us the feeling of greater dominance. When we won the ball, we may have lacked mobility and depth in the first half, which we had more in the second.
Galtier “There is significant risk taking, we project ourselves a lot”
“We dominated this period, but without managing to score this second goal. We create a lot of situations, we don’t score as much as we end up creating. There are significant risks taken, we project ourselves a lot. It is up to us to be vigilant about our loss of balls. We will now prepare well for Saturday’s match, recover well, analyze all of this well for Tuesday’s match, which will obviously become very important.
In this meeting, PSG logically experienced difficulties against a very high level opponent. Of course, we must analyze the performance of the Parisians, but we must also salute that of the Lisbon people who showed a more than satisfactory technical and physical level. For PSG, a victory would obviously have been the best result since it would have allowed the capital club to take a huge advantage in the race for qualification in the round of 16.
However, given the nature of the match, a draw is not a bad result either, especially since PSG were playing away. Next week at the Parc des Princes we will obviously have to do better and victory is almost obligatory under these conditions. But this Wednesday several positive points can emerge. The performance of Gianluigi Donnarumma, a 23-year-old Parisian goalkeeper is one of the points to highlight. Although he has come under a lot of criticism since the start of the season, he proved during this meeting that he was a European-class goalkeeper.
35-year-old striker Messi has once again confirmed that he is fit as his performance confirms he has regained his full potential. Despite this zero score there are many other positive and negative points, but it is the start of the season and with the meeting taking place next Tuesday at the Parc des Princes, it is to be hoped that the positive points will still be there, with greater realism in order to get the three points.
