Why PSG are more beatable than you think

Luis Enrique’s Paris Saint-Germain are very good, but they aren’t unbeatable. So how do you actually beat them? PSG are different this season. As they look to defend their Champions League title, they find themselves in a surprising title race in Ligue 1 against Lens. There have been injury problems: Fabian Ruiz, Achraf Hakimi, Bradley Barcola, Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele all missed significant game time. But it feels like this once seemingly perfect team has started to show some flaws… Reuben Pinder is joined by Alex Barker and Jon Mackenzie to find out how teams can exploit those weaknesses. This is The Athletic’s Week In Football. Read more on PSG's resurgence on The Athletic: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7127232/2026/03/18/psg-champions-league-chelsea/ Welcome to The Athletic FC's YouTube channel, where best-in-class journalism meets video. ------------ Timestamps: 00:00 PSG are very good, but they’re not unbeatable… 00:17 PSG’s season so far 03:06 How should teams try to beat PSG? 03:15 1. Be brave, press high 08:48 Why do PSG allow these distances to appear? 10:51 2. Prevent artificial transitions 14:24 3. Nullify Ousmane Dembele 16:41 4. Test their goalkeeper 18:26 5. Exploit their man-oriented press 21:39 6. Target individual defensive mistakes ------------ Try The Athletic for FREE for 30 days: https://theathletic.com/checkout2/intro30/?source=video_youtube_theathleticfc Watch our latest uploads here 👉 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9HdRjQJ0mH6bJW9MeLavdgTi-vMbJtrg&si=uKJJXdcnzAYGWiJo 💻 🎧 Watch the Tifo Football Podcast here https://www.youtube.com/@tifo-podcast 📬 Sign up for The Athletic FC Newsletter here for free: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/newsletters/the-athletic-fc/ Follow The Athletic FC: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAthleticFC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAthleticFC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theathleticfc TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theathleticfc Listen to The Athletic Football Podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/TAFPod Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/69AAB4ojTuK7gwy3ZdQdB9 Subscribe to The Athletic FC newsletter for free: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/newsletters/the-athletic-fc/ Follow The Athletic's Premier League WhatsApp Channel here: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va4OzCyKwqSbZb1pna0K ------------ Additional footage sourced from AP Newsroom