Ligue 1 2018/19: PSG vs OL

It was the first big game of the season for Thomas Tuchels PSG in the league and he wasnt found wanting. Faced with a Lyon team coming to the Parc des Princes and, with the same ambitions as against Manchester City in terms of pressing, the Parisians once again stacked their defence with seven players to hold tight in the first half before unleashing the Neymar-Mbappe duo. On the other hand, OL lacked imagination, and then saw its game plan shattered following the sending off of Lucas Tousart.

Lyon dominating

Nine shots to two and 63.1% possession at the Parc des Princes. It had been a long time since an opponent of Paris Saint-Germain has posted such statistics. For 45 minutes, despite the very premature exit of Nabil Fekir in the seventh minute, OL deprived PSG of the ball and opportunities. For this, they used the same ingredients as against Manchester City: effective high-pressing sequences, increased vigilance after losing the ball to prevent transitions and a compact midfield block to stall the progress of Paris.

Despite a promising start from the visitors, PSG still took the lead. In the eighth minute, Mbappe earned a penalty following a completely mistimed challenge by Anthony Lopes. The move had come from the first long Parisians pass. Until then they had struggled to find solutions to feed Neymar between the lines. The Brazilian was indeed closely shadowed by Lucas Tousart, placed in the middle of the midfield after the exit of Nabil Fekir.

Much more than the tactical approach of Olympique Lyonnais, it was this first goal that dictated the rest of the first half. After eight minutes, the possession was also in favour of PSG (20 passes to 14). It was only then that it largely switched in favour of OL (62% until the sending off of Kimpembe after 31 minutes). And for good reason: the Parisians played deeper than their opponents. Neymar, Cavani and Mbappe put little pressure on OL on the ball and OL easily bypassed this first line to enter the opposition half.

They were then faced with a block of seven players: four defenders and three midfielders. Meanwhile, the three Paris strikers played a higher line. The counters also arrived rather quickly but did not end with shots (in the 11th and 17th minutes). With the exception of these two dangerous moments, OL kept a certain balance. In midfield, Tousart and Ndombele did a lot of work to cut out transitions and fill the gaps that could exist after losing the ball.

A look at Lyons PassNetwork and PassSonar show how important Ndombele was. This importance increased even more with the expulsion of Tousart. On the PassNetwork we can see how Ndombele takes the exact position of his teammate.

The lack of Lyon creativity

In summary, Lyon had control of the ball and managed to settle easily in the opposition half. Their only missed opportunities are where the problems started for Lyon. Despite their relative dominance, they did not manage to get real opportunities until Denayers header from Memphis free-kick shortly before the break. At half-time, the two teams had a similar xG: 0.87 for PSG (including 0.76 with the penalty), 0.86 for OL (including 0.46 for Denayer). On their eight other shots, les Gones had therefore created only 0.40xG. They had very little hope for an equaliser bar a moment of individual brilliance.

As is often the case, Bruno Genesios players went a long way to get into the final third. The most interesting situations came from attacking down the channels through Rafael (after 11 minutes) and Mendy (19 minutes). Each time, however, the Parisian defence knew how to remove the danger. In total, Lyon centred the ball 14 times in the first half for only one real moment of danger in the box: the header from Denayer in the 41st minute. Apart from that, there was nothing to report. Depay played the majority of his balls as a pivot. Traore and Cornet were almost exclusively stuck on the touchlines.

Another concern was the manageme