One of our biggest revelations from tonight is that Espart is FAR more equipped to hold his own defensively than Cancelo.

Broadly speaking, the result is irrelevant. The lessons from it, however, are absolutely invaluable. —Lessons for Deco and Co: invest in the backline!!!! —Lessons for Flick: Hansi… I love you, but some of this minute management makes no sense. Given how dominant we’ve been this far, in no world should the likes of Pedri and Rodri be fatigued to the point of not being able to complete the game. It’s ridiculous. —Lessons for the team: We can score, create, and retain possession against anybody. Good. Take that. But the psychology is still off. PSG, proven winners at this stage, have an edge and belief about them in adverse circumstances that I’m yet to see from us. It’s all well and good when you’re better than 95% of the teams you face, but what happens when a team can match you? That’s when the psychological of digging deep and refusing to give in comes to the fore. We lack that.

I think we competed, and competed well enough. But when it’s 2-2 in the 80th, with Barça on the front foot and PSG without a lot of their main players, losing the game from there is inexcusable. Of course the circumstances were unideal. Raphinha not fit for 90, Rodri not fit to start, no Eric or Kounde, Martin iffy. But PSG had more than enough of their own issues to balance it out. Ultimately, it clearly felt like one team had more belief in their own capacities to get the job done. And that was by far the biggest difference between the two for me.