Champions League group stage loss at Paris Saint-
Germain on Tuesday night took its lead from Blaugrana
coach Luis Enrique's post-game comments that his side
had paid dearly for individual mistakes made during the
game.
In Madrid the analysis was more cutting -- with pundits
saying the result and performance showed how previous
optimism over Barca's unbeaten start to the season had
been overstated as Luis Enrique's side flunked their first
real test of the campaign.
The Barca-boosting Mundo Deportivo's cover said
"Expensive Errors" over a photo of Barca goalkeeper
Marc Andre ter-Stegen and defenders Jeremy Mathieu
and Jordi Alba looking disconsolate. Inside its match
report admitted the team had "suffered" but said they
might have equalised late on.
Sport had a similar image on its front -- but this time it
was Lionel Messi, Neymar and Andres Iniesta looking
upset. Their headline said: "With Messi and Neymar, it's
not enough," while pointing out that "the 'cracks'
respond, but the defence gives in."
Over in Madrid, Marca's online match report was less
sympathetic. Headlined "PSG undress Barca," it said that
the Camp Nou side's weaknesses had been ruthlessly
exploited by the Ligue 1 champions.
"Barcelona suffered their first defeat of the season
against a PSG side who knew how to take advantage of
the Blaugrana outfit's weaknesses.
"The mistakes in playing out from the back, the
insecurity in the air of ter Stegen and the imprecision
among Luis Enrique's kids made life easy for the French
side."
AS' report in their print edition was even more scathing
in its dissection of the performance: "PSG won 3-2, but
the result did not reflect in any way the superiority of the
French side against a disastrous, calamitous and
headless Barcelona.
"Without ideas, Luis Enrique's side trusted everything in
a stratospheric move coming off for Messi or Neymar.
Besides that, they were a disaster in defence, not
because of ter Stegen, who conceded the first three
goals of the season.
"The full-backs were in tatters, the centre-backs were
not centre-backs and from there you could see how
PSG scored their first two goals from dead balls."
Conversely, the French media has heaped praise on
Laurent Blanc's PSG side who went top of Champions
League Group F and responded well to criticism over
their domestic form.
An ecstatic David Luiz features on the front page of both
sports daily L'Equipe and local tabloid Le Parisien.
L'Equipe's front page sums the night up in one word --
"Magique" -- while Le Parisien's main headline -- "They
did it!" -- also reflects the euphoria in Paris.
"Magique" - @lequipe hails @PSG_inside 3-2
@FCBarcelona. @DavidLuiz_4 happy to answer critics.
http://t.co/l2S4uOOade pic.twitter.com/tBgs1lrDID
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) October 1, 2014
Tuesday's win at the Parc des Princes extended PSG's
unbeaten home run in Europe to 30 games. The Ligue 1
champions have also become the first French side to
beat Barcelona twice in European competition.
In Le Parisien, Dominique Severac writes that both sides
played some magical attacking football on an emotional
night in the French capital.
"It's already one of the biggest games in the history of
PSG, a legendary meeting for purists and dilettantes
alike.
"It wasn't necessarily total football but in part total, with
technical ability and tactical knowledge worthy of a
knockout match like a quarter or a semifinal.
"PSG have just proved that they can win the Champions
League by moving from words to action against
Barcelona, after having beaten Chelsea (3-1) in April."
After a sluggish start to the season, L'Equipe said
everyone had been waiting to see what PSG were really
made of.
"On Saturday, in Toulouse (1-1), PSG seemed to be no
longer able to remember what football looked like,"
Jerome Touboul writes in L'Equipe.
Not so three days later. Touboul hailed an "immense"
performance from Javier Pastore and suggested that
both the Argentine and "explosive" Brazilian attacker
Lucas appear to play better when star striker Zlatan
Ibrahimovic is unavailable.
"At this rate," Severac joked in Le Parisien, "Ibrahimovic
will have trouble getting his starting place back."
Elsewhere, L'Equipe singled out former Chelsea centre-
back Luiz for special praise: "This David is a Goliath"
read the headline above the player ratings, which saw
the Brazilian lead the way with 8 out of 10.
"If he needed an evening in order for him to be adopted
by the Parc des Princes, it was this one!" the report
read.
Most notably, the paper reported, his charisma had
helped inspire his teammates.
Lucas and Pastore also got 8 out of 10, while Uruguayan
striker Edinson Cavani (5) was the one PSG player to
receive less than a 7.
In contrast, Lionel Messi was the only Barcelona player
to get a 7, while goalkeeper Marc Andre ter Stegen was
rated the worst performer with 3 out of 10.
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