“They totally lacked humility,” said Bixente Lizarazu after PSG’s defeat

PSG, again beaten 1-0 by Borussia Dortmund in the return match, was eliminated in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

“They totally lacked humility,” estimated, Wednesday May 8, Bixente Lizarazu, football consultant for franceinfo after the new disillusionment for PSG who failed to beat Dortmund in the semi-final of the Champions League. The dream of a final at Wembley is gone. However, before the match, Spanish coach Luis Henrique was sure of victory. “We will win”, he declared in a pre-match press conference. “He was showing off. At some point it pays off against a team which won the tactical battle in both rounds”, explained the former French international. Kylian Mbappé “did not live up to the event either”according to Bixente Lizarazu. “He completely missed” of his match. But Bixente Lizarazu points “management full of tension” of the Mbappé case throughout the season within PSG.

Franceinfo: Was there not an excess of confidence among Parisians?

Bixente Lizarazu : They totally lacked humility. Since the draw against Dortmund, they were certain that they would go to the final. I thought it was disrespectful to Dortmund. When you already lost 1-0 and suffered, Luis Henrique said that the only word in French he knew was: “We will win”. It’s a “chulo” attitude, it’s a bit of showing off. He was showing off. At some point, it pays off against a team which, in both rounds, won the tactical battle.

What was this tactic?

The Dortmund coach did something quite simple. He defended very low to prevent the Paris Saint-Germain attackers from expressing themselves with their speed. He really put density in the axis. He played on the sides. He took two shots on the sides on Dembélé and Mbappé. It worked very, very well. He stopped Paris from speaking out like that. Before that match, it was said that the tactical genius was Luis Henrique. We saw that this was not the case since it was Edin Terzić who won that battle. They really looked down on Borussia Dortmund. They already won the Champions League in 1997. They’re not just anyone in the European Cup. They showed that they also had a mentality of steel, because they succeeded perfectly in containing this Paris Saint-Germain team.

A team which nevertheless does not play for the first places in the Bundesligua…

They are having a paradoxical season being 5th. It’s a team that had to play in the championship and the Champions League, so they left a lot of energy. But for all that, there are good players on this team. It is a team which has European culture, which knows how to sublimate itself and which knows how to keep its cool. They did it. Paris did not know how to do it. Luis Henrique is a head coach, you absolutely must apply his precepts. I have the feeling that Paris Saint-Germain’s game was much too academic and that, by applying its precepts, we have players who are a little robotic and who, at a given moment, are unable to revolt individually. I’m not a big fan of chef culture. Players must have some form of autonomy. I saw diligent students, but it didn’t work against Dortmund.

How do you judge Mbappé’s match?

He completely missed it. He misses his outing because, obviously, we expected him to have a big match that qualified Paris Saint-Germain for the Champions League final. But here too, we can wonder about Mbappé’s management throughout the season. It was a management full of tension. He was sidelined at the start of the season. Luis Henrique said he was a player like any other. At some point, it pays both ways. Mbappé didn’t live up to the event either.