This Wednesday night, Barça has achieved a victory worth its weight in gold against PSG at the Parc des Princes in Paris (2-3). In a heavily charged atmosphere and with all the pundits taking for granted an easy triumph of the French, Barça showed clear progression in its play, timing the game very well, knowing how to suffer in the bad moments and overcoming a horrible start to the second half, when PSG took the lead in five electric minutes, to turn around the 0-1 deficit. Barça, however, recovered and scored two more goals to conquer Paris. The huge and unexpected leader of the team was Raphinha, who had his best game as a Barcelona player, with two goals and a performance full of character.
Xavi Hernández surprised everyone by leaving Christensen - starting defensive pivot in recent games - on the bench, while he opted to place De Jong, returning from injury, in the midfield, next to Gündogan and Sergi Roberto, another surprise in the line-up. Luis Enrique, former Barça talisman and current PSG manager, also tried to be crafty by opting for Marco Asensio as a false 9, with Mbappé and Dembélé on the wings.
PSG came out very intense, trying to give verticality to the game and preventing Barça from finding a way into atacking territory with high pressing. Little by little, though, Barça began to impose its football, led by De Jong and Gündogan, to which an imperial Lewandowski contributed in the aerial game, winning all the balls, and from 20 minutes in, Barça completely took control. And finally the prize arrived. PSG only tried to attack in space, with Dembélé or Mbappé driving, but both encountered a very concentrated Barça defence. After a pass into space for Lamine Yamal, who looked for Lewandowski, the ball was left dead and Raphinha scored in an empty net (37') . And soon after, there could have been a second.
Barça's spectacular comeback
But all the work done in the first half went to waste in just 6 minutes, the time it took PSG to turn the score around, in a perfect storm as the second half began. Luis Enrique's team came out with intensity, very high, and in the 48th minute they got the equaliser, in an unstoppable missile from Dembélé after a bad blaugrana clearance. And right after that the second one arrived. A great pass into space by Lee for Vitinha, who beat Ter Stegen with a cross. And in the midst of the French maelstrom, they could have made it 3-1, with a shot from Barcola that crashed into the crossbar .
Xavi had to act. He took Sergi Roberto and Lamine Yamal off the field and brought on Joao Félix and Pedri, the latter returning after 5 weeks out due to injury. And the first ball that the Canarian player touched ended up in the onion bag. Pedri came up with a wonderful pass for Raphinha, who sent the ball into the goal with a fantastic finish on the first touch (62'). With the game all tied up, the forces were balanced.
In the 75th minute, Dembélé was left on his own, but his cross shot hit the base of the post. Only two minutes later, however, at the other end, Barça scored, in a set piece. Gündogan sent a corner into the area, Donnarumma stayed under the posts and Christensen, who had just come on, scored at leisure (77'). The last 10 minutes were a constant attack by PSG, who hunted the equaliser, but Barça managed to hold on to that 2-3 carat victory.