Latest news with #Vitinha
New York Times
an hour ago
- Business
- New York Times
We watched PSG win Champions League final with a professional head coach – here's what we learned
'They've scored five goals, but the defensive work was the key thing that won the game,' says Ian Cathro, verging on cliche. Paris Saint-Germain had just beaten Inter 5-0 in Munich, the biggest winning margin in a Champions League final but, while everyone marvelled at Desire Doue's brilliance, PSG's positional rotations and Vitinha's midfield orchestrating, Cathro's focus was elsewhere. Advertisement UEFA Pro Licence coaches watch the game differently. It's their job. Cathro — once an assistant to Nuno Espirito Santo at Rio Ave, Valencia, Wolverhampton Wanderers (where he coached PSG's Vitinha), Tottenham Hotspur and Al-Ittihad — this season led top-tier Portuguese side Estoril to their best finish in nine years. They forced the most offsides of any Primeira Liga team, ranked fourth for ball recoveries and sixth for final-third tackles. No wonder he admires PSG's out-of-possession approach. 'PSG's pressure has taken Inter out of their normal routines with the ball, and that's the thing that helps you grow into a final. When the magnitude of the game is higher, routines are more important. They've taken that away from them completely,' he says. 'Inter have a lot of mobility if you don't press the first ball circulation, but they can't get into funky positions if you start pressing them straight away — because they have to hold their spaces to take on that pressure.' He spots a detail with Achraf Hakimi's pressing on 23 minutes, just after PSG's second goal. 'As he was starting to run, he went three metres inside and stopped them slamming forward to a striker, forcing the ball to the wing-back (white arrow). That's when you know they've nailed the work, to stop those inside line passes (yellow arrow), they've never been unbalanced.' 'PSG are trying to press the ball outside and around. The break point would be if you were able to get the ball to the side and go diagonally in.' Inter could not in this instance. Joao Neves is too tight to Henrikh Mkhitaryan while Hakimi's pressure and readjustment blocks any inside pass, forcing Federico Dimarco long. Inter No 9 Lautaro Martinez has dropped deeper to try and support, with PSG centre-back Marquinhos staying touch-tight. Dimarco targets his strike partner, Marcus Thuram. Neves recovers and Willian Pacho closes Thuram to make a two-v-one for PSG. Neves tackles the France international. 'It's a lot of work,' Cathro says on coaching a high press. 'It's the most difficult bit to get to perfection. You're playing against highly proficient technical players with their own ideas.' When an almost identical pressing pattern happens eight minutes later, Cathro's praise switches to Vitinha. Dimarco is forced long once more, this time on his right foot, and Vitinha stays tight to Martinez before ducking as he reads that the striker won't be able to make the flick-on. The ball runs through to Marquinhos. 'What he has done there is excellent. Not competing for that ball, not letting that ball land, and now they can turn it into possession. PSG's pressing — the little details — has been really good.' In the second half, he lauds Ousmane Dembele for forcing Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer to kick long. 'So if he has to go and lift it, he's lifting it either across his body and he has to do it early — because you'll get close to his right foot — or you force him on his left.' Against PSG's press, Sommer hit nearly 43 per cent of passes long (his season average is 28 per cent in Serie A and the Champions League). Luis Enrique's side made the first contact on half of his long passes. One sequence, with PSG 4-0 up on 77 minutes, makes Cathro say 'wow' (none of the goals did). As Inter recycle into the middle from the right wing against a PSG low block, Vitinha presses substitute Kristjan Asllani when he receives Darmian's sideways pass. Cathro pointed out the mid-block pressing trigger in the first half: 'The ball going from one side to the other and then backwards. The PSG back-line gets as high as they can, which, compared to gradually dropping, changes so much.' Within three seconds, five PSG players have committed to press and centre-back Francesco Acerbi is facing his own goal — Dembele is on top of him. Inter end up playing all the way back to Sommer, PSG lock on and Dembele presses him into kicking long. Luis Enrique's side have stepped up so quickly that they catch Martinez offside. Five PSG players — including incoming substitute Lucas Hernandez — have already got their hands up appealing. I ask Cathro if he would clap or praise that same press from his Estoril side. 'Yeah, I'm rewarding that. I know it's not a goal, but that really needs to be rewarded because that's the intensity, concentration, and maintaining the focus. You know that that has such an impact on the opponent as well. It takes a lot away from them.' Advertisement 'I don't remember a situation where Inter have actually been able to pass feet-to-feet centrally while PSG have been pressing. PSG have really worked hard at taking away those lines inside, and they've forced predictable circulations of the ball, meaning they've been able to get closer and closer, force mistakes and regains. Their work against the ball has been exceptional.' His first-half critique of Inter is that they were 'close to passive'. He finds using the word as an absolute 'really offensive. It's not nice, but it was in that direction.' PSG completed over 100 passes inside the first 15 minutes — three sequences of 10+ passes — and Inter only recorded two tackles and two interceptions, content to slide and shuffle in their 5-3-2 block. Cathro's analysis was that Inter were 'actively trying to trap the ball on one side. They're sitting, they're allowing a fair bit. When somebody allows you to do something, that's because they're planning to do something to you. 'We've not seen one Inter counter-attacking situation from established PSG attacks. They regained it on the midfield line and slammed it forward to the two strikers once. 'They switched it to the right side and you thought, 'OK, maybe this is the counter that they're looking for'. They've not had a possession that's forced PSG to drop back into shape once. 'If they want to try and trap us on the same side, then I'd (PSG) be looking to repeat (attack again) that side with a different movement or a different mobility — try and profit from their plans.' 'Same side' is a phrase Cathro repeats a lot when talking about attacks, explaining how PSG reworked the situation down the left to create the cutback from Doue to Hakimi for the opening goal. Acerbi steps forward when Fabian Ruiz passes backwards to Vitinha. This makes space for a through ball to Doue, and the domino effect is that Dimarco (having played Doue onside) scrambles across to cover. He was marking Hakimi and ends up neither stopping the full-back nor blocking the cutback, and the Moroccan taps in. Quarter-final goal ✅Semi-final goal ✅Final goal ✅ Achraf Hakimi gives PSG an early lead in the Champions League final, but refuses to celebrate against his former side Inter ⚽ 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 31, 2025 Cathro likes the word 'mobility' to describe full-backs and wingers interchanging, and says it is important, 'especially against a back three. When the outside centre-backs start to feel that they lose their references (for marking) — because there's a certain distance where they feel like, 'I'm controlling this one' and then there's the point where they're not controlling anyone directly — that creates that little gap'. Advertisement What would he have done if he were Simone Inzaghi? He caveats that 'there's definitely a non-tactical element in this,' and that a 'limited number of impactful things can happen'. The 38-year-old speaks from experience, having been Nuno's assistant at Rio Ave in May 2014 when they lost two domestic cup finals to Benfica and were behind at half-time in both. Tactically, his focus would be to 'get another player in the middle and try and force the middle of the pitch. See if that just forces PSG to have more doubts when they're pressing. Because if they have to run too far away from the middle or all midfielders need to be engaged in pressure, they may not feel comfortable, knowing that there's two strikers behind'. He points out it takes 27 minutes for a pass to stick from the back line into a striker — from Sommer looping a drop-kick into Thuram — before Inter work a wide triangle with two midfielders combining to put Denzel Dumfries into a crossing position. PSG cleared it but Thuram and Martinez were two-v-two in the box. Twelve of Inter's 19 crosses came from the right, and Cathro spots a pattern on 28 minutes that kept creating crossing positions down the right. 'That's two maybe, three times, that diagonal in-to-out run down the right has been made. PSG haven't been close enough to it and the cross has been possible. A lot of teams, when they're closer to their box in that situation, don't send the centre back — they send the midfielder. 'If Inter get into that position and are high enough up, that diagonal run for the ball down the line might leave a player free because the centre-back isn't going to want to come.' His less tactical solution owes to 'the Scottish part of my psyche. The Inter team — older, more experienced, more years, they can see the goal (trophy) — I'm surprised that there's not been a bigger kind of physical moment to try and reset the order of the game a little bit'. Advertisement Just getting to a higher position and staying there, having five minutes of more intensity, get against them, hit them. Sometimes you lose a ball higher up, somebody slips away and you go, 'You're going on the ground, my friend'. Create maybe a little bit of chaos. 'Get the referee involved in the game, from the point of view that you've got the experience to handle that and provoke them a little bit. Remind them that football has got other things to it — not everything is how you build up and how you press.' Cathro starts thinking about his half-time team talks from no earlier than 41 minutes in. In Luis Enrique's position, he says he would be demanding more 'same-side work, rather than trying to get around to the opposite side'. Inzaghi, Cathro thinks, should call on desperate measures in desperate times. 'Rip the piece of paper up and start again. I'd be adapting completely and I'd be going on top of them. 'He knows a point must come where this game has to be provoked in a completely different way. 'Inzaghi knows, if his team gets a little bit more unstable, you shoot (for a comeback) too soon and it rebounds, the game's over'. With the score unchanged at 60 minutes, PSG start to drop deeper and Cathro says his focus would be on pressing, 'because right now you're fighting the beginning of a comeback. Everything's got to come out (physically) in the next three to five minutes'. There are two minor, ultimately inconsequential moments, first from Joao Neves and then Nuno Mendes, which he quickly verbalises a dislike for. 'That would piss me off — Neves tried to half-volley a pass in behind. Because those little things could be like a virus. I'd be losing my voice making sure he looked at me for eye contact for a split second.' My head is actually in my notebook on 76 minutes because PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma has just caught an inswinging Inter corner and is laying on the ball. 'Nuno Mendes has just slapped an awful pass across the pitch, which would send me insane,' Cathro says. I look up and rewind. Under no real pressure, he underhit a Hollywood pass to substitute Bradley Barcola, and Inter are attacking again. But PSG are 4-0 up. Cathro says 'the game is over'. Why does it matter? 'You're trying to stay on top of this. You don't want s*** decisions to slip in, you don't want arrogance, you don't want the lack of concentration, you don't s****y bouncing passes. You want to be on it. 'I want 10 minutes of clean, controlled, stand-tall, chest-out, 'We are the champions, we will play that way'. No s***, don't want any s***e. It finishes 4-0.' Advertisement Only once does he take any real pleasure from an attacking action: Vitinha on 62 minutes when he sprints over to take a free kick short in PSG's own half. He plays one-twos with Hakimi and Marquinhos, the latter finding him with his back to goal against the press, and the No 6 turns before he splits Inter with a pass to Dembele's feet. Then he runs on to complete another one-two from Dembele's backheel, and threads through Doue with PSG on a three-v-two overload. The pass is so well weighted that the teenager, sprinting, can finish one-touch past Sommer at the near post. It's Desire Doue's world and we're just living in it 🌟 The 19-year-old makes it two goals and an assist in the Champions League final 🔥 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 31, 2025 Presumably owing to the coaching Cathro gave Vitinha when he was on loan at Wolves in 2020-21? 'No, it's not! He'd done that himself, that goal,' he responds, enthusing about 'the intensity in all of his positioning and all of his actions and all his asks for the ball, deep in his own half, to then decide, 'I'll actually run forward'. It changed everything. I thought, 'Why are you running forward?' 'Technically, he had all of those things when he was at Wolves. The intensity he didn't have, or the taking responsibility aspect. It was just going through time. We didn't really do much for him. 'He certainly would have wanted a lot more out of his time at Wolves — you're a really talented kid that comes through an academy, always winning, always playing, then you arrive at a club and Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves are the two midfielders, so you're not playing. They're playing, and it's as simple as that. Because they're better. 'But it was an important year for him. He probably needed the difficulty and the sort of realisation of how difficult it is, and that's probably what happened. He grew up a lot, it got him ready for when he went back to Porto and he really excelled.' Cathro summarises it as 'a game where a team playing fearless and being themselves outdoes the more wise, strategic approach — I think that's healthy for football. 'PSG finally winning with this team is also healthy. A young, hungry, obviously highly talented, high-potential team, that functions a lot more as a team.' Advertisement When the camera cuts to a crestfallen Inzaghi, I ask if coaches naturally empathise with others in those difficult moments. 'Everybody watching this game knows that this is a good Inter team and a fully-grown man who knows exactly what he's doing — he doesn't need anybody's pity.' It is not unempathetic but the cut-throat realism that elite coaches need. 'It's been a game of football and it's fallen to a certain side because of maybe three or four things. You're on the wrong side of it today, mate. Life goes on.' What does he reckon Inzaghi's thinking right before the final whistle? 'I'm wanting the press conference to finish and I want to go on holiday.'
Irish Times
10 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Viva Vitinha: how PSG's deep conductor proved Lionel Messi wrong
'Not only are you bad, but you're hurting me.' The words, there, or so it was claimed, of Lionel Messi ; and however you spin it, a fairly tough six-month performance review from the greatest player of all time and your own footballing idol. Back in February 2023 Vitinha was very quick to deny that any such training ground altercation had taken place between himself and Messi at PSG , whatever the reports in the French football press at the time (another version of that conversation has Messi saying: 'Do you see? This is why you're shit.') Vitinha was clear: never happened. All the same this shadow interaction was cast at the time as a glimpse of the wider unease among the aristos, the powdered wigs of that star-system dressingroom. Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé were, it was said, 'disappointed with the quality' of the club's most recent recruits. Given those new arrivals included Vitinha and Fabián Ruiz, two-thirds of the Champions League -winning midfield, that disappointment has now presumably been served up very, very cold at Sunday's victory buffet in Munich. READ MORE But whatever the extent of those tensions there is no doubt Vitinha was still idling on the runway at that point: 23 years old and still all promise, a mix of obvious weak spots – slow, physically slight – and obvious super-strengths, most notably the strangely intimate and tender relationship with the ball. Fast forward to Saturday night and the evisceration of Inter Milan in Munich has confirmed his altered status. Vitinha is now the most effective central midfielder in the world, a Champions League-winning fulcrum and the key lubricant in Luis Enrique's treble-winning team. Everyone likes this kind of story, the late bloomer who offers an on-this-day angle at each fresh note of triumph. Let's do it then. Four years ago Vitinha was coming on as a late sub for Wolves in a 1-0 defeat at Everton, his last loan appearance before Wolves passed up on a low-cost option to buy him. The year before, he spent the fag-end of his first spell at Porto repeatedly coming on between the 72nd- and 77th-minute mark. Even his squad number was 77. He was basically that 77th-minute guy, generically high technique, an avatar of promising-Velcro-touch Portuguese midfielder. Wolves had quite a few of these in their sights at the time. Who do you take the gamble on? Who can make the leap up here? For all the data, the smell test, the eye test, the gut test, nobody in football really knows about other elements like pressure points, will, chemistry, the ability to produce moments of clarity when the air is thinnest, as Vitinha did to make PSG's first goal on Saturday night. The key pass to Désiré Doué was clipped hard, raising the tempo perfectly, hitting just the right spot on Doué's foot. It was a moment that will slip between the headline numbers, but which changed the game decisively. Paris Saint-Germain's midfielder Vitinha in action against and Inter Milan's Lautaro Martinez during the Champions League final in Munich. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images For Vitinha there was an assist in the second half, a through pass to Doué, who ran on to make it 3-0 and chloroform Inter into a final state of submission. It seemed fitting PSG's deep conductor should assert himself in this way on this stage, if only because Vitinha has been utterly key to the more nuts-and-bolts transformation of the team. First as an element of control in the classic modern style, brilliant at taking the ball and funnelling it on, a footballer who will simply wear you down and make you chase, killing you softly, flooding your calves with lactic acid. Vitinha completed more passes than any other player in this season's Champions League, and ended up second on kilometres covered, just behind his maniacal co-pivot João Neves. But this is not your basic ball-hog. Vitinha has something else, an ability to drive the game as well as control it, hot as well as cold possession. Against Inter his most telling stat was 44 of 46 medium-range passes completed, and it was notable how often that longer pass was the source of a shift of gear or a sudden transition. It is a quality of command that didn't seem to come easily. It is perhaps a little overlooked, but it takes an extraordinary degree of confidence, even a kind of arrogance to run a game like this, to be the passing fulcrum in a possession-heavy team. For Vitinha the point of ignition came after his return to Porto from Wolves. Manchester United, Arsenal and Barcelona were soon being posited as likely destinations, unsurprisingly given the GDP of Portugal is basically 35 per cent transfer rumours, 25 per cent hidden agents' fees. PSG, for whom no signing is ever really a gamble, were willing to pay the €41.5 million release clause. Still there was a sense of something slightly blocked in his progress. By the time of the ghost falling-out with Messi, L'Équipe was already putting Vitinha at the heart of internal disappointment around the 2022 rebuild. A club insider was quoted as saying: 'It's the weakest since I've been at the club. They don't understand why PSG let [Leandro] Paredes, Idrissa Gueye and even Julian Draxler go to recruit Vitinha, Fabián Ruiz and Carlos Soler, even if the latter is a little better regarded than the other two.' Even by debauchery-era PSG standards, always a farrago of leaks and bitchiness, it looks like a wonderful line now. Luis Enrique deserves most credit for the way Vitinha has flowered, encouraging him to act as an autonomous passing unit, a roving brain. How far can this go? There is a sense with Vitinha in this PSG team of a cog hitting its mark, of the perfect part for a highly engineered team, like installing exactly the right replacement reverse flange-torque transponder in a luxury German saloon car. Wolves may have failed to see the endgame with this slow-burn child of Xavi but it is also significant that English football still doesn't produce this type of player, the pure passing technician. There is no doubt Vitinha, or even half a Vitinha, would have seriously upgraded any of the trophy-curious England teams of the last few years. As he has with Paris, who have a chance now to rule the world at the grisly but hugely lucrative Club World Cup. Who knows, along the way Vitinha 2.0 might even get a chance to make Messi look bad again. – Guardian
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Vitinha: PSG's deep conductor who is proving Lionel Messi wrong
'Not only are you bad, but you're hurting me.' The words, there, or so it was claimed, of Lionel Messi; and however you spin it, a fairly tough six-month performance review from the greatest player of all time and your own footballing idol. Back in February 2023 Vitinha was very quick to deny that any such training ground altercation had taken place between himself and Messi, whatever the reports in the French football press at the time (another version of that conversation has Messi saying 'Do you see? This is why you're shit'). Advertisement Vitinha was clear: never happened. All the same this shadow interaction was cast at the time as a glimpse of the wider unease among the aristos, the powdered wigs of that star-system dressing room. Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé were, it was said, 'disappointed with the quality' of the club's most recent recruits. Related: PSG 2.0 have potential to dominate but young stars could be lured away | Nick Ames Given those new arrivals included both Vitinha and Fabián Ruiz, two-thirds of the Champions League-winning midfield, that disappointment has now presumably been served up very, very cold at Sunday's victory buffet in Munich. But whatever the extent of those tensions there is no doubt Vitinha was still idling on the runway at that point: 23 years old and still all promise, a mix of obvious weak spots – slow, physically slight – and obvious super-strengths, most notably the strangely intimate and tender relationship with the ball. Advertisement Fast forward to Saturday night and the evisceration of Inter in Munich has confirmed his altered status. Vitinha is now the most effective central midfielder in the world, a Champions League-winning fulcrum and the key lubricant in Luis Enrique's treble-winning team. Everyone likes this kind of story, the late bloomer who offers an on-this-day angle at each fresh note of triumph. Let's do it then. Four years ago Vitinha was coming on as a late sub for Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 1-0 defeat at Everton, his last loan appearance before Wolves passed up on a low-cost option to buy him. The year before he spent the fag-end of his first spell at Porto repeatedly coming on between the 72- and 77-minute mark. Even his squad number was 77. He was basically that 77th-minute guy, generically high-technique, an avatar of promising Velcro-touch Portuguese midfielder. Wolves had quite a few of these in their sights at the time. Who do you take the gamble on? Who can make the leap up here? For all the data, the smell test, the eye test, the gut test, nobody in football really knows about other elements like pressure points, will, chemistry, the ability to produce moments of clarity when the air is thinnest, as Vitinha did to make PSG's first goal on Saturday night. Advertisement The key pass to Désiré Doué was clipped hard, raising the tempo perfectly, hitting just the right spot on Doué's foot. It was a moment that will slip between the headline numbers, but which changed the game decisively. For Vitinha there was an assist in the second half, a through pass to Doué, who ran on to make it 3-0 and chloroform Inter into a final state of submission. It seemed fitting PSG's deep conductor should assert himself in this way on this stage, if only because Vitinha has been utterly key to the more nuts-and-bolts transformation of the team. First as an element of control in the classic modern style, brilliant at taking the ball and funnelling it on, a footballer who will simply wear you down and make you chase, killing you softly, flooding your calves with lactic acid. Vitinha completed more passes than any other player in this season's Champions League, and ended up second on kilometres covered, just behind his maniacal co-pivot João Neves. But this is not your basic ball-hog. Vitinha has something else, an ability to drive the game as well as control it, hot as well as cold possession. Against Inter his most telling stat was 44 of 46 medium-range passes completed, and it was notable how often that longer pass was the source of a shift of gear or a sudden transition. Advertisement It is a quality of command that didn't seem to come easily. It is perhaps a little overlooked, but it takes an extraordinary degree of confidence, even a kind of arrogance to run a game like this, to be the passing fulcrum in a possession-heavy team. For Vitinha the point of ignition came after his return to Porto from Wolves. Manchester United, Arsenal and Barcelona were soon being posited as likely destinations, unsurprisingly given the GDP of Portugal is basically 35% transfer rumours, 25% hidden agents' fees. Related: Désiré Doué joins the global A-list to lead PSG's coronation as kings of Europe | Barney Ronay PSG, for whom no signing is ever really a gamble, were willing to pay the £35m release clause. Still there was a sense of something slightly blocked in his progress. By the time of the ghost falling-out with Messi, L'Equipe was already putting Vitinha at the heart of internal disappointment around the 2022 rebuild. A club insider was quoted as saying: 'It's the weakest since I've been at the club. They don't understand why PSG let [Leandro] Paredes, Idrissa Gueye and even Julian Draxler go to recruit Vitinha, Fabián Ruiz and Carlos Soler, even if the latter is a little better regarded than the other two.' Even by debauchery-era PSG standards, always a farrago of leaks and bitchiness, it looks like a wonderful line now. Advertisement Luis Enrique deserves most credit for the way Vitinha has flowered, encouraging him to act as an autonomous passing unit, a roving brain. How far can this go? There is a sense with Vitinha in this PSG team of a cog hitting its mark, of the perfect part for a highly engineered team, like installing exactly the right replacement reverse flange-torque transponder in a luxury German saloon car. Wolves may have failed to see the endgame with this slow-burn child of Xavi but it is also significant that English football still doesn't produce this type of player, the pure passing technician. There is no doubt Vitinha, or even half a Vitinha, would have seriously upgraded in any of the trophy-curious England teams of the last few years. As he has with Paris, who have a chance now to rule the world at the grisly but hugely lucrative Club World Cup. Who knows, along the way Vitinha 2.0 might even get a chance to make Messi look bad again.
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Vitinha: PSG's deep conductor who is proving Lionel Messi wrong
'Not only are you bad, but you're hurting me.' The words, there, or so it was claimed, of Lionel Messi; and however you spin it, a fairly tough six-month performance review from the greatest player of all time and your own footballing idol. Back in February 2023 Vitinha was very quick to deny that any such training ground altercation had taken place between himself and Messi, whatever the reports in the French football press at the time (another version of that conversation has Messi saying 'Do you see? This is why you're shit'). Vitinha was clear: never happened. All the same this shadow interaction was cast at the time as a glimpse of the wider unease among the aristos, the powdered wigs of that star-system dressing room. Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé were, it was said, 'disappointed with the quality' of the club's most recent recruits. Given those new arrivals included both Vitinha and Fabián Ruiz, two-thirds of the Champions League-winning midfield, that disappointment has now presumably been served up very, very cold at Sunday's victory buffet in Munich. But whatever the extent of those tensions there is no doubt Vitinha was still idling on the runway at that point: 23 years old and still all promise, a mix of obvious weak spots – slow, physically slight – and obvious super-strengths, most notably the strangely intimate and tender relationship with the ball. Fast forward to Saturday night and the evisceration of Inter in Munich has confirmed his altered status. Vitinha is now the most effective central midfielder in the world, a Champions League-winning fulcrum and the key lubricant in Luis Enrique's treble-winning team. Everyone likes this kind of story, the late bloomer who offers an on-this-day angle at each fresh note of triumph. Let's do it then. Four years ago Vitinha was coming on as a late sub for Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 1-0 defeat at Everton, his last loan appearance before Wolves passed up on a low-cost option to buy him. The year before he spent the fag-end of his first spell at Porto repeatedly coming on between the 72- and 77-minute mark. Even his squad number was 77. He was basically that 77th-minute guy, generically high-technique, an avatar of promising Velcro-touch Portuguese midfielder. Wolves had quite a few of these in their sights at the time. Who do you take the gamble on? Who can make the leap up here? For all the data, the smell test, the eye test, the gut test, nobody in football really knows about other elements like pressure points, will, chemistry, the ability to produce moments of clarity when the air is thinnest, as Vitinha did to make PSG's first goal on Saturday night. The key pass to Désiré Doué was clipped hard, raising the tempo perfectly, hitting just the right spot on Doué's foot. It was a moment that will slip between the headline numbers, but which changed the game decisively. For Vitinha there was an assist in the second half, a through pass to Doué, who ran on to make it 3-0 and chloroform Inter into a final state of submission. It seemed fitting PSG's deep conductor should assert himself in this way on this stage, if only because Vitinha has been utterly key to the more nuts-and-bolts transformation of the team. First as an element of control in the classic modern style, brilliant at taking the ball and funnelling it on, a footballer who will simply wear you down and make you chase, killing you softly, flooding your calves with lactic acid. Vitinha completed more passes than any other player in this season's Champions League, and ended up second on kilometres covered, just behind his maniacal co-pivot João Neves. But this is not your basic ball-hog. Vitinha has something else, an ability to drive the game as well as control it, hot as well as cold possession. Against Inter his most telling stat was 44 of 46 medium-range passes completed, and it was notable how often that longer pass was the source of a shift of gear or a sudden transition. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion It is a quality of command that didn't seem to come easily. It is perhaps a little overlooked, but it takes an extraordinary degree of confidence, even a kind of arrogance to run a game like this, to be the passing fulcrum in a possession-heavy team. For Vitinha the point of ignition came after his return to Porto from Wolves. Manchester United, Arsenal and Barcelona were soon being posited as likely destinations, unsurprisingly given the GDP of Portugal is basically 35% transfer rumours, 25% hidden agents' fees. PSG, for whom no signing is ever really a gamble, were willing to pay the £35m release clause. Still there was a sense of something slightly blocked in his progress. By the time of the ghost falling-out with Messi, L'Equipe was already putting Vitinha at the heart of internal disappointment around the 2022 rebuild. A club insider was quoted as saying: 'It's the weakest since I've been at the club. They don't understand why PSG let [Leandro] Paredes, Idrissa Gueye and even Julian Draxler go to recruit Vitinha, Fabián Ruiz and Carlos Soler, even if the latter is a little better regarded than the other two.' Even by debauchery-era PSG standards, always a farrago of leaks and bitchiness, it looks like a wonderful line now. Luis Enrique deserves most credit for the way Vitinha has flowered, encouraging him to act as an autonomous passing unit, a roving brain. How far can this go? There is a sense with Vitinha in this PSG team of a cog hitting its mark, of the perfect part for a highly engineered team, like installing exactly the right replacement reverse flange-torque transponder in a luxury German saloon car. Wolves may have failed to see the endgame with this slow-burn child of Xavi but it is also significant that English football still doesn't produce this type of player, the pure passing technician. There is no doubt Vitinha, or even half a Vitinha, would have seriously upgraded in any of the trophy-curious England teams of the last few years. As he has with Paris, who have a chance now to rule the world at the grisly but hugely lucrative Club World Cup. Who knows, along the way Vitinha 2.0 might even get a chance to make Messi look bad again.
Hindustan Times
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Champions League: In PSG's first, a benchmark for excellence
Kolkata: The Champions League trophy has a new home. One where it could now be a frequent visitor if what a young and skilful Paris St-Germain (PSG) did this summer is any indication. Till Saturday, the Champions League had meant heartbreak for PSG. It was against them that Barcelona showed impossible was nothing, Marcus Rashford helped Manchester United escape to victory and Karim Benzema scored a hattrick as Real Madrid pulled off a heist. Borussia Dortmund stunned them last term and the only time they had played the final before this, PSG had come up short. PSG compensated for all that hurt, for 12 successive knockout round qualifications ending in disappointment, with so much style and substance that the 5-0 dismantling of Inter Milan can now be a benchmark for excellence. Their energy made Inter look inert and, suddenly, very old. And PSG's finesse threw into sharp relief the heavy touches and misplaced passes from the three-time former champions who were in search of a treble not so long ago. 'The image that remains cancels a bit the great season that we have had,' midfielder Nicolo Barella said after Inter's second Champions league final in three seasons. At an average age of 24 years and three months, PSG are the youngest after Ajax in 1994-95 to win the world's toughest club competition. Three days from his 20th birthday, Desire Doue became the youngest to score and assist in a Champions League final, as per Opta. Senny Mayulu is even younger and his combination play with Bradley Barcola, 22, for the fifth goal can be a pointer to the future. PSG caught Inter with their fluid forward play and interchange of positions when they had the ball and pressed them to suffocation when they did not. Doue, the wide right, was on the left to meet Vitinha's defence-splitting pass and Achraf Hakimi, the right back, was where a centre-forward should have been. But PSG do not play a centre-forward so Hakimi did the job with his fourth Champions League goal. This was Hakimi's ninth goal contribution of the season, the most by a defender since 2001, said Opta. None of this was unplanned. 'If I have the ball, I attack, if I don't, I am a defender.' This was how he wanted PSG to play, manager Luis Enrique had said at the start of the season. It showed all night in Munich. With four different scorers – PSG had seven players with five goals in this campaign – the midfield pulling Inter apart to the point that Hakan Calhanoglu and Henrikh Mkhitaryan had to be replaced and Gianluigi Donnarumma being alert to a Marcus Thuram shot in the 75th, the winners were close to perfection. 'We were in cruise control,' said Enrique, the only manager other than Pep Guardiola to win a treble with two clubs. Ousmane Dembele, the designated false nine, didn't score but helped create the second, third and fourth goals. For the second goal, Dembele showed his speed, but for the rest of the night he played like a No.10 along with Vitinha, who is supposed to be a deep-lying midfielder. Dembele unhinged Inter's backline with measured passes, and in one instant, with a back-heel. That wasn't all he did. 'Dembele was pressing (Francesco) Acerbi and the centre-backs… He didn't give them room to breathe… would give Dembele the Ballon d'Or for how he defended today!' said Enrique. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia did not do what he usually does, draw defenders to him and create space for Dembele or fire accurate deliveries, but scored the fourth goal and helped in the counter-attack that led to the second. That was in the 20th minute and summed up the contrast between the teams. Nicolo Barella thought he had done enough to win a corner-kick – Inter's best chances came from them but Acerbi and then Thuram failed to keep headers on target – only for Willian Pacho to set up the counter-attack. Doue was brilliant in his movements all night, running the length of the pitch to score his first and producing a skilful finish, to another brilliant ball from Vitinha, for his second in the 63rd minute. No goals or assists in his last eight matches and then this. The early goals are PSG's forte, they have scored the most (9) in the first 20 minutes. It slayed Inter who had trailed for only 16 minutes in Europe this term. It is worth pointing out that before this became the biggest margin ever in a Champions League final, four of the last five had ended 1-0. And there could have been more had Dembele not missed from close, Barcola and Doue not gone wide. Victories this comfortable in a final tend to distort reality but as Manchester City rebuild, Inter grapple with the sense of an ending, Real Madrid adjust to life with Xabi Alonso, Liverpool deal with balancing Premier League and Champions League, Arsenal look to step up, Bayern to translate domestic superiority to Europe and Barcelona find a way to improve defensively, PSG will be the team to watch out for. Once a collection of stars, they are now a collective that knows no fear. Bring on the Club World Cup.
