Champions League final tactical profiles: Explaining PSG’s wing focus and energy, Inter’s vital wingbacks

Saturday’s Champions League final (3 p.m. Paramount+) promises to be an intriguing tactical struggle as nothing else. On the one hand, the super dried possession play of Luis Enrique’s Paris Saint-Germain, demonstrably founded as tournament favorites with their impressive victory over Liverpool in the Tour of 16 and that he had not offered anything of that idea since then. For PSG, their determining feature is perhaps the attack led by Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the first two among many who may deliver a moment to illuminate the air in Munich.

Against them, an inter -side that offers to go better after reaching this phase in 2022. Their defense was seen as their greatest quality in this competition, and because they have overcome the will of Bayern Munich and Barcelona, ​​it did it just Enough to allow their attackers to win the game on the other side.

Since other of such heads do not tell the full story of these two fascinating sides, there is a taste of what you need to know about the two contenders to be crowned by European champions:

PSG: Wing -Wonderen and High Energy

In many ways, the French champions are a refreshing throwback to the pre-known game. Over the past five years, Europe’s elite have led to convenience on the pure aggression with which they play, an outcome formed by many factors, not least a number of games that make it almost impossible to maintain a required intensity for high-prressing football. Luis Enrique does not have that problem. More than any other coach of Paris Saint-Germain, he seems to have made a virtue of the competitive imbalance in Ligue 1. His most important players are often stopped in the domestic matches before Big Champions League, an approach that was justified when their fresh legs were brought by the best England that had best offered.

That energy is effectively channeled. The PSG title carbonades were once – correctly – mocked for the simple fact that they had too many superstar attackers who did nothing defensive. Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe could all win games for Parisians in itself. Put them together and it was too easy for teams to go the ball to midfield. Two years ago, PSG 13.5 passes by defensive action, a metric that assesses the intensity with which teams print, in the Champions League. Now that number, per wyscout, is only 9.2, the second highest in the competition. As Aston Villa was able to confirm after giving up nine ball recovery in their own third in a 3-1 defeat, PSG follows their opponents as a unit, making it extremely difficult to play through their press.

When PSG gets the ball back, they are exceptional in holding it. Only Bayern Munich, very remarkably overwhelming with all the correct statistics of this Champions League, on average fit more than PSG per match and during the knockout phases only completed the Bavarians and Atalanta more in the last third part. With the excellent vitinha as a conductor, PSG is pre -eminently able to sharpen teams. Even if they go slowly, it can only be a prelude to an eruption of attacking pace, illustrated in Dembele’s competition winner in Arsenal, a 28-pass tear that still had the appearance of a quick arrow in an opening in the press then, in Pass No. 25, Nuno Mendes had the ball on the field.

How are teams caught Arsenal? It does not help that they rarely have fixed reference points in the front line to set up. In their first leg defeat, Dembele’s runs into a false nine position. Aston Villa was undone because Desire Doue, the nominal right wing, seemed to go where he liked devastating effect. For Liverpool, the problems with the pure unpredictability of the Triumvirate of Bradley Barcola, Dembele and Kvaratskhelia came. If a team could claim that they wouldn’t do that need The excellent talents of Kvaratskhelia when he left Napoli in January, it was probably PSG, packed on the gills with talented young wing players. Instead, the signing has been a triumph that has added a pure spark of invention on the left to perfectly link to Dembele, one of the best players in the world since his move to Vooruit in the winter. Before the arrival of their Georgian genius, PSG already followed one of the best teams in Europe. With him they are probably the very best.

Inter: a new twist on a well -known formula

Their opponents are now one of the most intriguing tactical propositions in the European elite. On paper there should not be much good comment about the 3-5-2 of Inter, after all Nerazzuri Are active with a back-hot system since the keys to Antonio Conte in 2019. The flammable Italian brought the defensive Trident to the mainstream in the middle of the 2010, but most teams have long returned to four men’s defenses (per opta tracking data, only six minutes in the Champions League used).

Within that small sample of teams, even less run with two relatively Orthodox Center Vooruit with the regularity of Simone Inzaghi. That gives Inter an almighty competitive advantage, crystallized in their 2-1 win over Bayern Munich in the first stage of the quarterfinals. Marcus Thuram’s shot the intestine of the defense occupied both central backs; The long -term understanding of the Frenchman with Lautaro Martinez is such that he trusts that a rear wheel will find his captain unark to go home.

Combining these two is of vital importance for the attack of Inter, all the more considering the midfield that the midfield of Hakan Calhanoglu, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Nicolo Barella is not as dynamic as it was two years ago when this side reached the final for the last time. They arrange and it is then up to the wing back to add larger bodies in the box. When one of those Denzel is Dumfries, he tends to leave it behind. Indeed, the Dutch international average average on average almost as many penalty boxes per 90 minutes, 4.5, as Martinez and more than mehdi Taremi, Antoine Griezmann and Christian Pulisic. The excellent Federico di Marco is also not far behind.

The wing ridges are not the only players who push high. Crucial for a large part of what inter works well is their wide centerback, which have a permit to push high on the field. Alessandro Bastoni is a particularly excellent Quasi-Midfielder, his average of almost 13 last third touches per 90 that provides him with Calhanoglu. Inter’s Center Back may be just as important for them in possession as Vitinha is for PSG, a real elite ball progressor that can wear, pass and receive in dangerous areas. Unlike him, Benjamin Pavard can do something similar, although not at such an elite level.

Without the ball it might be honest to say that Inter has driven their happiness in overcoming many very good teams – Manchester City, Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Barcelona all tried to overcome Inzaghi. Inter is perfectly prepared to drop deeply and to defend their own box, so that the ninth most penalty boxes of the 36 teams in the Champions League give up. No one has blocked shots anymore (per 90 inter rank fifth in that statistics), while Yann Sommer is in the top five of the competition for savings percentage, total rescues and goals that are prevented. The secret sauce of the third best defense of the Champions League in terms of goals that are allowed per match, are perhaps players who form at the right time; Will that take in Munich?