On Wednesday night Paris Saint-Germain will be looking to take a step towards securing their second Champions League final in a row, as they take on Manchester City at the Parc Des Princes. City themselves will be looking to build on their Carabao Cup final win on Sunday and take a strong result back to Manchester for the second leg, in their quest for their first Champions League final appearance.
This tactical analysis will look to give an insight into some of the tactics both managers, Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino, respectively, could look to use in this Champions League semi-final first leg.
Line-ups and formations
The noticeable absentees in Man City’s Carabao Cup final starting XI were Ederson, John Stones, Rodri, and Bernardo Silva, whilst Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus were also out of the starting line-up.
Whilst it’s difficult to tell whether the two latter players will make the starting XI, it’s more likely that the former four do. It will be a toss-up between Zinchenko and Cancelo, but as Guardiola might look for more control in the centre of the pitch, he may opt for Cancelo. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Guardiola go with a false 9, and frankly it could be any of Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne, Foden or even Gundogan in this role, or potentially a number of these players could fill this role at any point during the game.
As for PSG, Keylor Navas, Marco Verratti and Marquinhos have all been back in training the past week and are therefore likely to play. Verratti played in attacking midfield in this weekend’s 3-1 win over Metz but after Neymars’s outstanding displays in the 10 position in the games against Bayern Munich, it would be a surprise to not see the Brazilian play there again.
Neymar linking the counter-attack
Whilst PSG will certainly look to impose themselves on the game, they will know that with the pace of their attackers, they have a terrific chance of catching possession-heavy Manchester City on the counter-attack.
Neymar was a consistent threat in both legs against Bayern Munich in this role.
