PSG vs Manchester City:
The Moneybag Cup
WHY THE BEST DRAW?
Two teams synonymous with trying to buy a Champion’s League title face off Wednesday in the tournament’s quarterfinals. Manchester City--owned by an Abu Dhabi sheik for almost a decade--have become Champions League regulars beginning in 2011, and PSG, bought by Qatar Sports Investments that same year are run by the bosom-buddy of another sheik. The Paris side became a mainstay in 2012 and have reached the quarter finals each year since, while Wednesday will be City’s first quarter final match.
Both teams are chock-full of big signings and perhaps rife with luxury personnel, but how they have fared has had more to do with when they were drawn to face Barcelona than any other factor, as the Catalan squad has knocked out one of these two cash-strapped teams for the last four years. The Champions League holders take on secondary league rivals Atletico Madrid in what will be this knockout round’s other great matchup, only superseded by the unofficial Moneybag Cup in intrigue because Barca and Atleti often play each other a handful of times a year, while these teams last played in a competitive match in the now defunct UEFA cup almost ten years ago, and before they became the darlings of oil.
TACTICAL ASPECTS
A Toure-less City
Although a vital part of City’s recent Premier League success, Yaya Toure has looked less likely than ever to track back this year, and has produced less moments of brilliance to justify this deficiency. Furthermore, important newcomer Kevin De Bruyne has struggled to mesh with the towering midfielder, and yet has shown signs of getting on the same page with City’s other offensive stars, Silva and Aguero. In City’s game at the weekend, their second goal came as the result of concerted up-field pressure from those three, and it lead to City winning the ball and with a touch each--a sublime Aguero chip to Silva, a Silva back-parry and a calm DeBruyne side-foot volley--the ball easily found its way into the back of the net. This was a goal entirely impossible to imagine had Toure been on the field as a number ten.
If City line up in a 4-2-3-1 with De Bruyne and Navas outside, Aguero up top and Silva in the middle, they will have a chance to stretch PSG’s defence and look to overload the space behind PSG’s wing midfielders Matuidi and Rabiot. If holder Fernando is unavailable, Man City coach Manuel Pellegrini could elect to go with a 4-1-4-1 as he sometimes has, with Fernandinho the lone pivot. Yet with a slew of midfield injuries and the recently returned Nasri unwisely taken off the Champions League roster in January, he may choose a lineup better suited to his available players. A more conservative 4-4-2 pairing Bony and Aguero up top would put apt strikers in a position to seize their few opportunities, and would be characteristic of a coach who has been hesitant to take risks in the Champions League.
Blanc’s 4-3-3
PSG Coach Laurent Blanc switched Paris’ formation to an attacking 4-3-3 mid-season in 2014 and has barely looked back. With a strong defensive line which impressively absorbed Chelsea’s desperate pressure in the last knockout round, and an attacking line headlined by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and also bragging Cavani and Di Maria, PSG are a relatively complete team built around industrious, skillful midfield play. Matuidi and Rabiot will both play more or less box-to-box, with Thiago Motta sitting behind them to pivot play and to shield the defense.
Absences Almost Offset
The major absences from this first leg are Vincent Kompany for City and Marco Verratti for PSG. City are far frailer in defense without Kompany, and even though Otamendi has had a decent season as a central defender on an individual level, what City lack with Kompany gone is his fiery leadership and the intimidation factor he brings to a back line.
Similarly, while Rabiot has filled in ably and even provided some key goals for PSG,
Verratti was often the player who drove PSG’s physical style of play. Always riding on the cusp of a red card, Verratti is a combative player who seems to appear everywhere, riling his teammates up in the process. Against Mourinho’s Chelsea last year, PSG’s physicality exposed them, and they played with the type of abandon that Mourinho used to be capable of inspiring in a team, and which can be the difference when two talented teams from disparate leagues meet.
SUBPLOTS/INTANGIBLES
The Moneybag Cup
WHY THE BEST DRAW?
Two teams synonymous with trying to buy a Champion’s League title face off Wednesday in the tournament’s quarterfinals. Manchester City--owned by an Abu Dhabi sheik for almost a decade--have become Champions League regulars beginning in 2011, and PSG, bought by Qatar Sports Investments that same year are run by the bosom-buddy of another sheik. The Paris side became a mainstay in 2012 and have reached the quarter finals each year since, while Wednesday will be City’s first quarter final match.
Both teams are chock-full of big signings and perhaps rife with luxury personnel, but how they have fared has had more to do with when they were drawn to face Barcelona than any other factor, as the Catalan squad has knocked out one of these two cash-strapped teams for the last four years. The Champions League holders take on secondary league rivals Atletico Madrid in what will be this knockout round’s other great matchup, only superseded by the unofficial Moneybag Cup in intrigue because Barca and Atleti often play each other a handful of times a year, while these teams last played in a competitive match in the now defunct UEFA cup almost ten years ago, and before they became the darlings of oil.
TACTICAL ASPECTS
A Toure-less City
Although a vital part of City’s recent Premier League success, Yaya Toure has looked less likely than ever to track back this year, and has produced less moments of brilliance to justify this deficiency. Furthermore, important newcomer Kevin De Bruyne has struggled to mesh with the towering midfielder, and yet has shown signs of getting on the same page with City’s other offensive stars, Silva and Aguero. In City’s game at the weekend, their second goal came as the result of concerted up-field pressure from those three, and it lead to City winning the ball and with a touch each--a sublime Aguero chip to Silva, a Silva back-parry and a calm DeBruyne side-foot volley--the ball easily found its way into the back of the net. This was a goal entirely impossible to imagine had Toure been on the field as a number ten.
If City line up in a 4-2-3-1 with De Bruyne and Navas outside, Aguero up top and Silva in the middle, they will have a chance to stretch PSG’s defence and look to overload the space behind PSG’s wing midfielders Matuidi and Rabiot. If holder Fernando is unavailable, Man City coach Manuel Pellegrini could elect to go with a 4-1-4-1 as he sometimes has, with Fernandinho the lone pivot. Yet with a slew of midfield injuries and the recently returned Nasri unwisely taken off the Champions League roster in January, he may choose a lineup better suited to his available players. A more conservative 4-4-2 pairing Bony and Aguero up top would put apt strikers in a position to seize their few opportunities, and would be characteristic of a coach who has been hesitant to take risks in the Champions League.
Blanc’s 4-3-3
PSG Coach Laurent Blanc switched Paris’ formation to an attacking 4-3-3 mid-season in 2014 and has barely looked back. With a strong defensive line which impressively absorbed Chelsea’s desperate pressure in the last knockout round, and an attacking line headlined by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and also bragging Cavani and Di Maria, PSG are a relatively complete team built around industrious, skillful midfield play. Matuidi and Rabiot will both play more or less box-to-box, with Thiago Motta sitting behind them to pivot play and to shield the defense.
Absences Almost Offset
The major absences from this first leg are Vincent Kompany for City and Marco Verratti for PSG. City are far frailer in defense without Kompany, and even though Otamendi has had a decent season as a central defender on an individual level, what City lack with Kompany gone is his fiery leadership and the intimidation factor he brings to a back line.
Similarly, while Rabiot has filled in ably and even provided some key goals for PSG,
Verratti was often the player who drove PSG’s physical style of play. Always riding on the cusp of a red card, Verratti is a combative player who seems to appear everywhere, riling his teammates up in the process. Against Mourinho’s Chelsea last year, PSG’s physicality exposed them, and they played with the type of abandon that Mourinho used to be capable of inspiring in a team, and which can be the difference when two talented teams from disparate leagues meet.
SUBPLOTS/INTANGIBLES
- PSG currently sit seventh in UEFA’s club rankings, while Manchester City sit thirteenth
- Bayern Munich’s captain, Phillip Lahm, recently mentioned both unofficial Moneybag Cup participants: "I don't think you can buy a really great team with money, like Paris Saint-Germain or Manchester City are trying (to do).”