Perfection, imperfection and French lessons.
Pointing out that Ousmane Dembele finished off that glorious Paris St-Germain passing move with his shin is rather like castigating another famous Paris resident, the Mona Lisa, for a frown. The slight inelegance or unorthodox nature of Dembele’s connection didn’t matter. It proved incredibly effective. The speed with which he reacted further punished an Arsenal team already caught out of position. Any “imperfection” simply served to highlight the perfect nature of the preceding 25 touches.
The media reaction was understandably effusive. The narrative was that the goal was perfection. But football isn’t a science, it’s not neat geometry, there’s always the human factor, the slight imperfection, the shin. Listening to Wayne Rooney on punditry duty at the Emirates for PS-G’s Champions League semi-final first leg win over Arsenal immediately raised memories of one of his most famous goals. Rooney’s bicycle kick in the 2011 Manchester Derby was a goal for the ages – and also off his shin. Rooney’s always argued that it’s an even more difficult technique off the shin.
In the build-up to that Derby goal there were mistakes all over, not least in a misjudged Rooney lay-off to Paul Scholes, who, typically, turned a bad ball into a good one and accelerated the move.
The beauty of the PSG goal was the intelligence and elevated technique throughout the move. And teamwork. Only Fabian Ruiz of PSG’s outfield players didn’t touch the ball. People rightly praise PS-G’s pace, skill and exuberance but they are so clever. Luis Enrique set a trap for Arsenal, and his players carried out the plan to perfection.