This article was first published on footballromance.com (a predecessor to this website) in August 2016.
Line-ups
Recent loan signing Enzo Crivelli led the line for Bastia, who also gave a debut to Allan Saint-Maximin on the right flank. Mehdi Mostefa, Lassana Coulibaly and skipper Yannick Cahuzac lined up in a central midfield three.
Paris Saint-Germain were unable to call upon captain Thiago Silva due to injury, with youngster Presnel Kimpembe his replacement alongside the somewhat erratic David Luiz in central defence. Attacker Edinson Cavani was also deemed unfit, so Hatem Ben Arfa continued in an unusual lone striker role.
Ben Arfa fades after a bright start
PSG were arguably at their most threatening in the opening minutes of the contest, with Ben Arfa twice breaking in behind the home defence inside the first 90 seconds; only a timely intervention from Sebastian Squillaci prevented the attacker from getting a shot away from a dangerous position.
Crivelli’s incessant chasing in the early stages suggested Bastia started with the intention of putting their opponents under pressure when PSG were in possession, but those early scares quickly prompted them to drop their defensive line much deeper. Ben Arfa became something of a peripheral figure for the next 25 minutes or so as a result, but the champions’ interchanging in midfield and attack initially gave the Corsicans plenty to think about.
PSG initially overrun Bastia in midfield
Emery deployed his favoured 4-2-3-1 system, which meant Serge Aurier and Layvin Kurzawa were free to break forward at will, given further encouragement by the fact that Lucas Moura and Angel Di Maria, the ‘wide’ attacking midfielders ahead of them, constantly drifted infield into central positions. With Adrien Rabiot and Thiago Motta also venturing forward at times, PSG overran the hosts in the middle of the pitch, with Bastia full-backs Alexander Djiku and Florian Marange reluctant to stray too far from their starting positions, while Coulibaly in particular was caught between tucking infield and tracking the marauding runs of Aurier out wide.
Emery’s side, however, were unusually lacking in quality in the final third, while Bastia also became wise to their opponents’ tactics as the half wore on and stationed wide men Saint-Maximin and Sadio Diallo in narrower positions to help their midfield three. For all his adventure, Aurier managed to deliver just one dangerous cross into the area, which, tellingly, no one was able to get on the end of. Frustrated by his lack of participation, Ben Arfa began to come short and go wide in search of the ball towards the end of the half, but, like his teammates before him, was unable to pick a telling pass.
The hosts muster the best chance of the first half
Angel Di Maria, with two fairly ambitious efforts from distance, was the only PSG player to test Jean-Louis Leca in the first period and it was in fact Bastia who came closest to opening the scoring. Saint-Maximin was their liveliest performer throughout the match and in the hosts’ first meaningful attack, the on-loan winger raced past Kurzawa and fired across goal for Crivelli, who far-too-easily eluded the attentions of Kimpembe and Luiz, to prod wide.
That was the most obvious example of Paris’ defensive fragility, but there were several more which followed, with Bastia unable to take advantage of several quick balls forward which caught Aurier, Kurzawa, Motta and Rabiot all upfield after PSG had carelessly lost possession.
Bastia’s attacking threat almost non-existent after half time
That, however, was as good as things got for the Corsicans, who really struggled to make any impact in attack in the second half. Crivelli was left to fight for hopeful high balls forward against two or three defenders up until he was replaced with 10 minutes to go, which was just after Saint Maximin’s first noteworthy involvement after the break. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the closest they came to finding the net was via a slack piece of play from Luiz; the alert Kevin Trapp was on hand to mop up the danger.
Ben Arfa began the second period as he had ended the first, attempting to drop deep and take part in PSG’s build-up play, although his most promising moment of the entire match came on the only occasion the team played to his strengths – a pass into feet allowed him to turn his man and run at the home defence, which led to a free-kick in a dangerous position.
Emery’s attacking tweak pays dividends
The former Nice attacker made way just after the hour mark and his replacement, Jesé, made a more significant contribution on his own league debut, helped by an attacking tweak made by Emery at the interval. Whereas in the first half, Lucas and Di Maria roamed across the field at will, in the second they were slightly more disciplined in the sense that the former largely stayed on the right of the attacking midfield three, with the latter stationed on the left.
As a consequence, we saw more effective link-up play between Lucas and Aurier, while Di Maria and Kurzawa were also in closer contact, all of which benefited Jesé and ultimately led to the winning goal with just under 20 minutes to go. Kurzawa played the ball infield to Di Maria, whose position drew Sebastian Squillaci out of defence, creating space for Jesé to run in behind. The Argentinian slipped the substitute through on goal and although his shot from an angle was parried, Kurzawa had continued his run and volleyed home the rebound.
Could Bastia respond? The answer was a resounding no, with Trapp forced to deal with only a couple of fairly harmless cross-balls into his box in the final few moments. Emery sent Marco Verratti on with quarter-of-an-hour remaining in an attempt to dictate play and while this tactic ultimately paid off, the Italian was very nearly caught in possession on the edge of his own box on a couple of occasions, which proved to be the Corsicans’ most encouraging moments.
What next?
Bastia will obviously not come up against opponents of such quality on a regular basis, so they will expect to offer more going forward in their upcoming fixtures.
Ben Arfa did little to suggest that he has a long-term future as a lone striker, with Cavani almost certain to lead the attack upon his return to full fitness. The France international will instead hope to be given an opportunity in his favoured number 10 role, which is likely to happen sooner rather than later. Kimpembe did little wrong in central defence, but Silva’s return should help keep Luiz in check and tighten up any defensive slackness.