One of my most unpopular opinions is that PSG’s 4-0 victory over Barcelona in the first leg of their 2016-17 Champions League Round of 16 tie was more impressive than La Remontada. In the face of what happened at the Camp Nou, everyone forgets just how devastating PSG was three weeks prior at the Parc des Princes.
Given the strength of that performance and PSG’s quiet confidence that they could score an away goal in the return leg, that infamous dinner conversation between Marco Verratti, Julian Draxler, Thomas Meunier and Blaise Matuidi between the matches still holds some hollow truth.
While the quartet admits that they’d happily accept going through to the quarterfinals following a 1-5 defeat, such a result just didn’t seem possible — even for an opponent with Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suárez and Andrés Iniesta — without some sort of divine intervention.
In the eyes of PSG, that was ultimately provided by German referee Deniz Aytekin — so much so that the club provided UEFA with a five-page dossier outlining the mistakes that Aytekin had made (including both Barça penalties and the denial of a clear penalty for PSG).
Obviously no one felt that bad for PSG because it was all really funny, they conceded six goals and they did themselves zero favors by playing with no cajones in the second leg. They went from swashbuckling and technically superior to believing they could withstand Barcelona’s onslaught by standing in and around their own area for 90 minutes.
Whatever the failures of the referee, it was clear that PSG’s players and former manager Unai Emery had failed just as spectacularly.
Recently speaking with Granada coach Diego Martinez, Emery reflected on the 6-1 defeat and again criticized the ref but also said that he made a mistake in not taking off an unnamed player.
"There are lots of details in that game that can be scrutinised," Emery said. “But if I start from the end, I’d change the referee and that’s it. I watched a repeat of the game the other day because I found it while I was flicking through channels. I watched it from the 50th minute to the 82nd minute.
“We were 3-0 down, we scored to make it 3-1 and we had a one-on-one that Cavani hit at the goalkeeper to make it 3-2; a clear penalty on Di Maria that wasn’t given; and in the 82nd minute, Di Maria fouled Neymar for the goal. That’s when I stopped watching.
“In that section of the game, I saw that one of our important players, who had had injury problems during the season, was hiding in the result. Maybe I would substitute him now. They are details, circumstances that escape you in a game. Then there are other key circumstances: the Barcelona players, especially Suarez, going down in the box continuously, pressuring the referee until he fell into their trap."
Who’s the PSG player Emery is talking about? It’s hard to say. Both Lucas Moura and Julian Draxler were hooked, so it’s probably one of Adrien Rabiot, Blaise Matuidi or Marco Verratti. Matuidi didn’t have injury problems that season and Verratti was pretty healthy as well, making Rabiot the best guess.
If any player personified the change of PSG between the two legs, it was the young French holding midfielder. L'Équipe gave him a 9/10 for his performance in the first leg and a 2/10 for his showing at the Camp Nou.
He’s now with Juventus while Emery is unemployed.
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