brilliant in the Classic, Paris has regained certainty ten days before returning to Munich

Three goals, none conceded, a revenge against the rival and a victory that counts double in the race for the title. Paris Saint-Germain had an almost perfect evening, Sunday February 26, in the Classic against Olympique de Marseille (3-0). A real benchmark match that can allow Christophe Galtier and his players to reassure themselves of their strengths, ten days before the knockout round of the Champions League against Bayern Munich.

Paris is not the same team with Mbappé

The contrast between the production of his team, with and without him against Bayern on February 14, was stark. Since then, Kylian Mbappé has had time to get back into shape. After playing a big role in the narrow victory against Lille (4-3), the French international left his mark on the Classic. The defenders may know that he will try to take space behind their backs, he always ends up going in front. The three goals scored by PSG resulted from these sequences.

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The Parisian number 7 brings what no other player brings to PSG – with the exception of the pistons Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi on certain meetings -: the ability to attack depth. In a press conference, the Marseille coach, Igor Tudor, gave no responsibility to his defenders for the failure of the anti-Mbappé plan. “He had too many spaces because he is a player from another planet”, quickly decided the latter. Meaning: there was nothing better to do.

Paris is able to create without Neymar

The absent are always wrong. Neymar was conspicuously absent from the Classic and it’s as if that didn’t bother any of his team-mates. Released on a stretcher against Lille a week earlier, victim of a sprained ankle, the Brazilian had to leave a big gap. Before Mbappé’s brilliant performance against OM, he was the most decisive Parisian of the season (35 times – 18 goals, 17 assists).

On Sunday, his absence above all allowed the Messi-Mbappé connection to run at full speed, the two stars giving each other the three goals. The Argentinian had more space to express himself and, a notch lower, the denser midfielder left a little more space for Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz to project themselves.

Paris has found a system that suits it

Three centre-backs and two full-backs allowed to play higher. Paris had started the season with this game idea, in a 3-4-2-1 system. The plan had worked very well at the start, with PSG scoring 28 goals in their first seven games (4 on average per game). After a drop in productivity, Christophe Galtier had opted for a four-man defense in mid-October, just before the reception of OM at the Parc des Princes. Then, this system only became an alternative, to be applied in certain matches that were not going in the right direction. On Sunday, it was a 3-5-2 variant that crushed Marseille.

“Are we going to stay in this system? We’ll see. When you win 3-0 in Marseille, we’re not going to try to find something else, necessarily”admitted Galtier at a press conference. This is the system on which we have built the squad. Absences made us move on“. The coach of the capital club took him out of the closet to take advantage of the return of Presnel Kimpembe, but the latter was seriously injured, “until the end of the season”. But the collective performance of the team, carried by liberated pistons, should not call this tactical choice into question. The entry of Danilo in place of Kimpembe as well as the replacement of Marquinhos on the left pleased Christophe Galtier.