Barcelona Vs PSG [1-2] Champions League 2025/2026: Hansi Flick High Line Tactics Punished – Tactical Analysis

Barcelona lost their UEFA Champions League clash with PSG at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium after a challenging match that witnessed an excellent level of football from both sides, but with more realism, concretisation, and consistency from PSG, who were more determined to win throughout the 90 minutes.

Barcelona failed to secure a home win despite scoring first and being very dangerous in the first half.

Nevertheless, their second-half performance was not convincing at all since they failed to threaten PSG’s goal consistently and were unable to create a serious threat apart from a few actions that led to free-kicks and were intelligently stopped by PSG’s defence, with the exception of a goalscoring chance at the 63^rd minute.

Barcelona’s negative second-half performance punished them especially because they were unable to defend well against PSG’s organised and dangerous attacks, and were unable to attack in a dangerous way.

Barcelona’s attacking issues in the second half are exacerbated by their inability to consistently provide key passes to the box and the absence of a reliable, dangerous striker who can finish accurately even when receiving passes in complicated situations.

Even with the subbing of an experienced striker like Robert Lewandowski, things did not change for Barcelona, given that he did not receive many passes and could not threaten PSG’s defence.

Furthermore, Barcelona were punished for continuing their use of a very high defensive block without considering the consequences against teams with very quick and dangerous players like PSG.

On the other hand, we can only congratulate Luis Enrique for the way he adapted to his teams numerous important absences, especially from an attacking perspective.

With Ousmane Dembélé, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, João Neves, Désiré Doué, and Marquinhos unavailable for the match, Enrique successfully replaced them with quality players, maintaining the PSG style of play and identity, despite the lesser quality of the replacements.

It is also true that Barcelona had some unavailable players for this match, but these absences were not too impactful and did not necessitate considerable changes within Hansi Flicks starting XI.

In this tactical analysis of the match between Barcelona and PSG, the objective of the article will be to assess Barcelona’s performance and focus on the defensive negatives of their performance, while looking at PSG’s decisive attacking solutions.

Barcelona Vs PSG Lineups & Formations

Flick started the match in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Wojciech Szczęsny as the goalkeeper, Eric García and Pau Cubarsí as centre-backs, Jules Koundé as a right-back, and Gerard Martín as a left-back.

Barcelonas absences included Raphinha in the attack, Fermín López in midfield, and Alejandro Balde in defence, who was substituted on later in the game due to still recovering from an injury.

These absences were surely impactful as they limited Flick’s choices, but they cannot be compared to PSG’s more valuable absences.

In midfield, Flick used Pedri and Frenkie de Jong as a duo, with Dani Olmo as the advanced playmaker, Marcus Rashford on the left wing, Lamine Yamal as a right winger, and Ferran Torres as the team’s main striker.

Barcelona’s starting lineup was balanced and good enough to challenge PSG, but what happened, especially during the second half, confirmed that Barcelona’s players were unable to keep up with PSG’s attacking transitions and, especially, their reliance on the individual talents of Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi.

Flick can be blamed for leaving a dangerous goal-poacher like Robert Lewandowski on the bench until the 72^nd minute, favouring Ferran Torres, who scored the team’s single goal but was not that decisive during the rest of his game.

For Paris Saint-Germain, Enrique employed his usual 4-3-3 formation, with Lucas Chevalier as the goalkeeper.

Given that Marquinhos was unavailable, he used a new defensive lineup with Willian Pacho and Illia Zabarnyi as centre-backs.

The defensive duo handled the match quite well, especially considering their experience on a European level and against one of the toughest teams to face.

And with Mendes and Hakimi supporting in the defensive phase and blocking many of Yamal and Rashford’s dangerous attempts, PSG’s defensive line was balanced enough to keep up with Barcelona’s attack, despite conceding several dangerous opportunities from the wings due to Yamal and Rashford’s individual talents, especially in terms of passing.

PSG’s midfield consisted of Vitinha as a defensive midfielder, Warren Zaïre-Emery and Fabián Ruiz as central midfielders, with Ibrahim Mbaye on the left wing, filling the spot vacated by Dembélé.

On the other wing, Bradley Barcola played instead of the unavailable Kvaratskhelia, with Senny Mayulu being the team’s striker.

Enrique was obliged to make many of the changes mentioned due to his players multiple injuries while preserving the team’s balance, mainly thanks to his second-half changes, which gave PSG an additional boost and allowed them to be even more dangerous than in the first half.

With the risky choice of advancing Mendes to become a winger and subbing Mbaye off for Lucas Hernández to become the left-back, PSG became much more powerful on both wings.

Despite not having many attacking options in the second half, Enrique succeeded in surprising Barcelona’s defence by substituting Gonçalo Ramos for a striker and adding Lee Kang-in as a left central midfielder.

Kang-in leaned heavily towards the right wing and created issues for Barcelona even though he played only briefly.

Paris Saint-Germain Attacking Transitions Vs Barcelona Ineffective High Defensive Block

PSG did not start the match well and suffered from Barcelona’s attacks at first, before starting to bounce back bit by bit and succeed in creating threats thanks to their reliance on both wings, and more specifically, on full-backs Hakimi and Mendes, who were both involved in most of their team’s attacking actions.

PSG Wing Threat & First Goal Action

Mendes’ penetrations made the difference for PSG.

He was able to dribb