5 reasons PSG lost to Real Madrid in the UCL round of 16
Contrary to popular beliefs prior to the tie, Los Blancos fashioned a fairly emphatic win against the much fancied PSG to advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions league.
The result was slightly harsh on the Parisians as they had to deal with Cristiano Ronaldo and company in the absence of their star man Neymar in the return leg.
Here are five reasons that played an important role in the elimination of PSG from the Champions league;
#5 Unai Emery's tactics
After leading Sevilla to three successive UEFA Europa league titles, a lot was expected from Emery with regards steering the Parisians to Champions league glory. But nothing of that magnitude has happened so far and it is partially due to his tactical naivety.
From awful team selection to uninspired substitutions, he was thoroughly outclassed by his counterpart, Zinedine Zidane.
His decision to completely omit Angel di Maria and Thiago Silva for the first leg, coupled with the fact that he substituted Edinson Cavani, when they were in dire need of another away goal speaks volumes of his lack of tactical acumen at this juncture of the competition.
For the 2nd leg, he decided to use Julian Draxler as a late substitute and played Thiago Motta and Adrien Rabiot, who himself is a defensive midfielder rather than a box-to-box midfielder.He should have played Julian Draxler as a winger and let Di Maria marshal the midfield along with Motta and Verrati. But alas, nothing happened as such and PSG paid the ultimate price.