The Tactic That WON The UEFA Champions League

Now, that the dust has settled over the past UEFA Champions League final, we can discuss about how PSG outclassed Inter Milan…tactically.

I have to admit that I supported Inter Milan throughout the tournament and I enjoyed their victorious nights, especially during the knockout stages.

On the same note, I liked watching Paris Saint Germain’s games during the tournament as they offered a playing style rarely used nowadays.

The relentless pressing, the passing patterns or how Achraf Hakimi becomes a striker so easily really helped distinguish Paris Saint Germain from the other teams.

I know this is going to hurt and I apologise beforehand, but I don’t think this could have been possible in the era when Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar played for the club.

Funny enough, Luis Enrique seems to partially agree with me also.

And talking about Luis Enrique, he is a manager who found a lot of success in his club managerial career. Not so much success was found on the international management front, but I guess we can live this aside for now.

Luis Enrique is a former football player, who split his career between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. To be honest, I don’t remember him playing for Real Madrid.

He began his playing career with his local football club Sporting de Gijón, where he gained the nickname Lucho after Luis Flores, a Mexican forward in the team. He earned 63 appearances combined between the B team and the senior one.

He then spent most of his remaining playing days with the two biggest Spanish clubs: first Real Madrid for five seasons and FC Barcelona. When he left Real Madrid he said that he "rarely felt appreciated by the Real Madrid supporters and didn't have good memories there".

His time at FC Barcelona was totally different. But before we move ahead, would someone tell these 3 that they are going to experience the best time of their footballing lives in the next couple of decades?

Although the supporters were reluctant to accept Luis Enrique as one of their own at the beginning, they grew to like him more and more as time went on.

Him celebrating passionately a goal against Real Madrid during one of the El Clasicos he played as a Barcelona player certainly helped.

Luis Enrique scored 46 La Liga goals in his first three seasons with Barcelona, with the side finishing runner-up in 1996–97 and he subsequently won back-to-back domestic championship accolades.

His concerns about his level and fitness made him retire on 10 August 2004 at the age of 34, and he finished his professional career with league totals of 400 games and 102 goals, being named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers.

He started his managerial career with the Barcelona B team, a path walked after by another moderately great manager.

And in June 2011, he joined AS Roma as their new manager. His downfall during his time spent managing the Giallorossi was that he brought with him one of his staff members, Ivan De La Pena. A great footballer himself, Ivan De La Pena played for Lazio and him joining Roma wasn’t a popular decision amongst the yellow and red fans.

Luis Enrique left the club at the end of that season, following not so great results. The club being infamously eliminated from the UEFA Europa League by Slovan Bratislava, among other results.

Celta Vigo followed but that story didn’t last long either.

And in came Barcelona, once again crossing paths with Luis Enrique. This time around, he was a manager looking for a club to manage.

His first competitive match was a 3–0 home league win over Elche, where he handed debuts to new signings Claudio Bravo, Jérémy Mathieu and Ivan Rakitić, and gave youth products Munir El Haddadi, Rafinha and Sandro their first league debut appearances for the club.

Ironically, Luis Enrique suffered his first defeat as Barcelona manager against Real Madrid. The season ended with Barcelona winning the La Liga title and he led them to the UEFA Champions League final.

On 6th of June 2015, Luis Enrique won the treble with Barcelona, following success in the UEFA Champions League and the Copa del Rey a few days prior.

A second domestic double was achieved in May 2016, following a 2–0 Copa del Rey victory over Sevilla after extra time.

And in March 2017, Luis Enrique announced that he would leave Barcelona at the end of his contract. When he joined the Spanish national team.

But this chapter can be left unopened, as dissent clouded his tenure with the national team, despite the performances the team had during that time.

In July 2023, Luis Enrique joined Paris Saint Germain, taking a decision that would alter his career and the club’s trajectory forever.

The squad still had Kylian Mbappe within their ranks and although the team started to play better and according to the manager’s instructions, there were reports of Kylian Mbappe not giving his all on the field, for the team.

Following his departure, changes to the line up took place and we had the final representation of the team, this season, during the UEFA Champions League final against Inter Milan.

Luis Enrique's incisive and direct football features quick transitions from defense to attack, contrasting the style of playing employed by possession-based managers, like Pep Guardiola or Mikel Arteta, for example.

Statistically, Luis Enrique's Barcelona, in his first two years at the club, were better than Guardiola's. version of the team. Comparatively, Luis Enrique’s team had scored more goals and conceded fewer, had a higher win percentage and won competitions at a similar rate. Pep Guardiola hailed them as the best counter-attacking team in the world.

And this statement is one I can get behind after watching PSG playing this past season, not only his Barcelona team.

Luis Enrique seems to prefer a 4-3-3 formation, although he experimented a lot in his career, sometimes changing the formation to 3-4-3 or a 4-4-2.

The pressing his teams and especially PSG employed is not erratic. It’s an organized, calculated system that is meant to push the opposition so much they have to concede the ball through a long clearance. Which Inter Milan did a lot during the final.

When the initial pressing phase is broken, the players get into their defensive shape and positions and push their opponents to the flanks as much as possible. For this reason, there were a lot of misplaced passes by the Inter Milan full backs or wingers, when they tried to find up top Lautaro Martinez or Marcus Thuram.

To be honest, the PSG pressing was so well executed at times it annoyed me watching the game on TV, let alone the Inter Milan players.

In possession, the team was brilliant, in my opinion. I know these are professional, world class players we are talking about. But the passing patterns and the channels they found were incredible at times.

I think Vitinha is an extraordinary midfielder. The way he picked up the ball and dribbled with it or passed it forward immediately was something else during that game. His playmaker game is immaculate most of the time and he seems to know how to use his teammates’ strengths.

The full backs in Luis Enrique’s tactics seem to go up the pitch in the rhythm of play, offering passing options out wide if needed.

The wingers often cut inside either with the ball and attack the opposition’s goal, or without the ball and offer a passing option, creating an overload on the side of the pitch they cut into.

As an in-game tactic, I went with a 4-3-3 formation. A sweeper keeper on defend duty was chosen as Donnaruma participates in the passing game from time to time, to help break the opposition’s pressing game.

The back four is made of a wing back on attack, two central defenders on defend and a wing back on support.

Achraf Hakimi’s role and duty can be any of the options given by the game, bar the inverted full back one.

I chose a wing back role on attack as Hakimi sticks to his flank most of the times, although he finds moments when he cuts inside. For this reason, I chose the cut inside with the ball player instruction, but beware, this is only with the ball.

The two center backs are two central defenders as they don’t seem to go out of their way to help the passing game, they recycle the ball when needed.

And the left back is a wing back on support duty, as Nuno Mendes joins the attack, but goes up in the rhythm of play, helping the passing game.

The easiest way to setup the midfield would be to use a roaming playmaker role for all 3 central midfielders. They play anywhere on the pitch in their areas and are very hard to be contained by the opposition.

But for variety, I chose a roaming playmaker role for Vitinha, a box-to-box midfielder role for Joao Neves and a central midfielder role on support for Fabian Ruiz.

And the three attackers were assigned two inside forward roles on attack and an advanced forward role.

I think Desire Doue can be assigned an inverted winger on support role also, for variety and to bring Hakimi in play more.

I asked the midfielders and the attackers to mark tighter and the attackers to close down more often, to try and emulate the pressing game PSG executed this season, especially during the Champions League final.

I chose positive as mentality.

In possession, fairly wide attacking width and play out of defence. Pass into space should be used and ticked on only in the matches in which the opposition leaves space in behind that can be attacked.

Standard passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. Work the ball into the box, as the aim of the team is to crowd the opposition’s box when positional attacks take place, to force the mistake and create goalscoring opportunities.

In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute the ball to the defence through short kicks.

And out of possession, a high press and a standard defensive line. I think the defensive line positioning depends on the opposition faced. When a weaker opposition is faced, a higher defensive line could be employed. And the opposite, a standard defensive line when the opposition is a bit stronger.

Trigger press more often, prevent the goalkeeper short distribution and push the opposition players out wide when they build up.

One thing that cannot be fully replicated in game and I find very smart is how PSG kicked off the final. That ball sent out like in a rugby match destabilized the Inter Milan defensive shape.

As one player was dragged out to play the ball in whilst the others were forced to take on attacking positions. As soon as PSG recovered the ball, they attacked an Inter Milan team that had players out of their positions.

I know it may seem unimportant, but for me that was a smart play.

I simulated only one season using this tactic and the results were on par.

I am glad I got to watch the final and I enjoyed the way PSG played. Luis Enrique is a manager who’s work I follow for many years and I think he deserved this success.