Even playing away from home and being two goals behind on aggregate, PSG sought a comeback, beating Barcelona 4-1 and qualifying for the Champions League semi-finals.
The game-changing move on aggregate came from a penalty kick by Kylian Mbappé, after João Cancelo brought down Ousmane Dembélé inside the area.
CBS Sports commentator in England, Thierry Henry, former Blaugrana player, evaluated the move and highlighted that there was no need for Cancelo to have attacked the opponent.
“There’s one thing you can’t control in football and that’s the ability to stay calm the moment something happens. I can say, if we look at this move, we say: why did he do that split? But there is something that happens to you. I don’t know why, we all think of something like that,” he said.
“I can understand: if you see Dembélé going towards the goal and you think he’s going to shoot, you stop him. But he was in the corner of the area, he is looking for you to take the bait. Because if you fall, you’ll hit my leg before you hit the ball. Even if it had been for VAR, the referee would have seen that Cancelo hit his leg before the ball”, he added.
Henry also highlighted that the factor that hindered the Portuguese in the move was his lack of calmness – and that this cannot be trained or acquired with work.
“Jamie (Carragher) is right, you don’t need to pounce on this move, just surround it. But how can you develop a player’s brain for a play exactly like that? You can’t recreate that move in practice. You can recreate the atmosphere, the 11 against 10, but you cannot recreate the calm of a player”, he stated.
“For example, I don’t think Van Dijk would do what Cancelo did, because he is as calm as a human being. As a coach, of course, you can say: hey, stay calm, make sure you don’t get sent off. But how do you train calm in dangerous situations? Even if you shout: ‘don’t attack’, you do, that’s what happens in panic situations”, he concluded.
