{"id":11206,"date":"2025-05-06T17:58:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T16:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11206"},"modified":"2025-05-08T00:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T23:16:12","slug":"make-it-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11206","title":{"rendered":"Make it Happen!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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That was the mantra provided by Mikel Arteta prior to the Real Madrid tie who we absolutely walloped (in case you needed reminding) and he repeated it before the PSG first leg which has so far, taken a slightly different course to the previous round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the game and for the first few minutes, the Emirates was louder than I have ever heard it before, and the Madrid game was an extraordinary atmosphere and many believed that was one that would take years to eclipse. Had we not conceded as early as we had, I believe it would\u2019ve done exactly that. For all the moaning about the atmosphere, it\u2019s fair to say that when you concede in those circumstances in a game of that magnitude, it is always going to knock the stuffing out of a crowd to some extent. And this is especially true of English crowds who are known for being reactive rather than the constant, singing, drumming and jumping around you get from continental crowds. For all the ultras movement that the Ashburton Army lads are trying to implement, it\u2019s difficult to change an entire culture of football fandom. Not that it\u2019s down to lack of trying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, I don\u2019t think the atmosphere last week was anywhere near as bad as Twitter (not X) would lead you to believe. Since last week\u2019s and Saturday\u2019s defeats, we have seen a great deal of yelling into the void on various sections of the interweb, which is understandable to some (heavy emphasis on the \u2018some\u2019) extent. Our form over the last few months has been patchy to say the least. We have had to watch from afar whilst Liverpool have won the title at a canter whilst we have been dropping points left, right and centre, many from healthy winning positions. That is disappointing. But that will happen when your squad has been decimated by injuries even if the certain sections of the obnoxious British media tries to gaslight us into thinking it hasn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on to the game and what we must do to progress. We are 1-0 down so we must score, no matter what. Ideally two without conceding. So, it\u2019s hardly a mountain, is it? More like a fairly large hill, one that you would have no huge difficulty climbing if you had a clean bill of health which, sadly, we do not have. With a fully fit squad I think we would\u2019ve won last week quite comfortably. We are without Havertz, Jes\u00f9s, Gabriel, Jorginho, Tomiyasu although we will have Partey available following his suspension which ruled him out the first leg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PSG have everyone available although there have been reports coming out of France suggesting Dembele is out with a hamstring issue. Of course he is, lads! Ring the other one it\u2019s got bells on. They made 10 changes on Saturday for their game at Strasbourg. PSG have, of course, already won the French Dog and Duck pub league which means absolutely nothing to their fans in reality. As we all know, they are owned and bankrolled by the Qatari Royal Family who have continuously pumped their limitless supply of cash into the club rendering the idea of competition in French Football essentially pointless. As a result of that, French Football has suffered financially in recent years as potential broadcasters and other investors are understandably not too keen on investing millions into a dead product when the winner is decided in August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this makes it more embarrassing that they have never won the Champions League. From day 1 it has been their Holy Grail but much to the delight of anyone with a conscience, it has so far eluded them. Their closest effort came in 2020 when they reached their first final but lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich in an empty stadium due to Covid when all the knockout rounds were played as one-off ties at a neutral venue. So even that has a big old Asterix next to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of how the game will go, it\u2019s a tough one to call. PSG certainly don\u2019t strike me as the kind of team to sit back on a lead which could potentially suit us. We did create a good number of chances last week and we quite easily could have been going into this game at least on level terms. But they also had chances to extend their lead, so keeping a clean sheet will be a tough ask but it’s doable. We certainly dwarf them physically in midfield, Rice and MLS both enjoyed several driving runs through the middle of the pitch, and both were unlucky not to come away with an assist each – MLS for Martinelli in the first half and Rice for Trossard in the second. Hopefully, the addition of Partey will give both Rice and MLS even more license to roam up the pitch whist the Ghanaian shores things up defensively. Crucially, Partey\u2019s presence should allow Merino to resume his post up top where he has been surprisingly effective. I think we will create some good chances, but will we take them? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, it\u2019s not just a question of physical strength. Vitinha, Neves and Fabian Ruiz aren\u2019t players you can easily push around. Luis Enrique is no dummy and his man to man pressing structure caused Liverpool a lot of problems in the Round of 16. But despite this, in the first leg it was clear that PSG deemed Saka our most dangerous threat and targeted him more than any other. Of course, this is not unusual as Saka is almost always double or even triple marked. However, there was one incident in the first half last week where Saka was surrounded by five PSG players. In theory this should mean there will be more space elsewhere on the pitch for certain other players to do damage. Let\u2019s hope this proves to be the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another potential area of weakness in PSG\u2019s arrears we can exploit and did to some extent last week, is their goalkeeper. Personally, I have never been convinced by Donnaruma and an area he really struggles with is claiming crosses whether it be from open play or set pieces. For Merino\u2019s disallowed goal last week, The Italian charged out of his goal allowing Merino to head home into a largely unprotected goal. I thought he was overly protected by the referee and decidedly average when claiming crosses from open play. One to target perhaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, I don\u2019t think any of us have any clue as to how this game will play out. You would like to think we will be well up for it but with the injuries we have it\u2019s very difficult. Although no one will give us any credit for it, the fact we\u2019ve even made it as far as the semi finals is a big achievement and one for which Arteta and his players deserve a lot of credit. It has been a torrid season in terms of luck but we are still potentially 180 minutes away from history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Let\u2019s make it happen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That was the mantra provided by Mikel Arteta prior to the Real Madrid tie who we absolutely walloped (in case you needed reminding) and he repeated it before the PSG first leg which has so far, taken a slightly different course to the previous round.  Before the game and for the first few minutes, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11206"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11214,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11206\/revisions\/11214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}