5 reasons PSG lost to Real Madrid in the UCL round of 16

Contrary to popular beliefs prior to the tie, Los Blancos fashioned a fairly emphatic win against the much fancied PSG to advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions league.

The result was slightly harsh on the Parisians as they had to deal with Cristiano Ronaldo and company in the absence of their star man Neymar in the return leg.

Here are five reasons that played an important role in the elimination of PSG from the Champions league;

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#5 Unai Emery's tactics

Unai Emery's tactical naivety led to PSG's downfall.

After leading Sevilla to three successive UEFA Europa league titles, a lot was expected from Emery with regards steering the Parisians to Champions league glory. But nothing of that magnitude has happened so far and it is partially due to his tactical naivety.

From awful team selection to uninspired substitutions, he was thoroughly outclassed by his counterpart, Zinedine Zidane.

His decision to completely omit Angel di Maria and Thiago Silva for the first leg, coupled with the fact that he substituted Edinson Cavani, when they were in dire need of another away goal speaks volumes of his lack of tactical acumen at this juncture of the competition.

For the 2nd leg, he decided to use Julian Draxler as a late substitute and played Thiago Motta and Adrien Rabiot, who himself is a defensive midfielder rather than a box-to-box midfielder.He should have played Julian Draxler as a winger and let Di Maria marshal the midfield along with Motta and Verrati. But alas, nothing happened as such and PSG paid the ultimate price.

#4 Major defensive errors

Lo Celso was at fault for Real Madrid's first goal during the 1st leg.

PSG are not known for their defensive stability as much as they are known for their ridiculous attacking firepower, especially this season with the big money acquisitions of Neymar and Mbappe overshadowing their defensive problems. But games of such magnitude are not won solely on the basis of attacking riches, as was evident during the tie.

Of the five goals they conceded during the tie, they could have avoided at least 4 goals had they been more efficient defensively.

During the 1st leg at the Santiago Bernabeu, Lo Celso was responsible for conceding a penalty, allowing Real Madrid to force a comeback when they were one goal down. Moreover, for Real's 2nd goal, it was Marquinhos' poor clearance that was met by Ronaldo to give Real Madrid a hefty lead to take to Paris for the 2nd leg.

During the 2nd leg, Dani Alves was responsible for losing the ball to Marco Asensio further up the pitch. This led to a counter-attack and subsequently Ronaldo's third goal of the tie, in addition to Rabiot's poor clearance which led to Real's 2nd goal.

#3 Neymar's absence

Neymar's injury was a major setback for the Parisians

No offence to Di Maria and company, but they are nowhere near the level at which the Brazilian operates at the moment. PSG's main threat in front of goal relies heavily upon it's attacking trio's improvisation with little or no midfield play whatsoever, which is quite similar to Luis Enrique's Barcelona of last season.

With Neymar out injured, their rhythm got disrupted and Di Maria hasn't gotten much playing time to have any sort of proper understanding with Mbappe and Cavani. With no proper offensive structure through midfield, they lacked incisiveness and consequently were easily thwarted by Real's compact defensive structure.

#2 Big guns failing to step up

Mbappe and Verratti were below par during the 2nd leg.

PSG have some of the world's finest footballing talents on thier books. The likes of Neymar and Mbappe are considered future Ballon d'or prospects, a lot was expected of them. But they failed miserably, individually and as a group.

Neymar dribbled excessively during the 1st leg, but an end product to all that was non-existent to say the least. There was no link up play between him and Cavani, this hurt PSG's chances in the 1st leg.

In the 2nd leg, Mbappe was presented with a golden opportunity to marshall a comeback. All he had to do was pass the ball to an onrushing Cavani, but his shot for glory instead was well dealt with by Navas and so were their chances to stage a comeback. Verratti was also sent off in the 2nd leg to cap off a shambolic outing for PSG.

#1 PSG's big game mentality

PSG's starting eleven.

PSG are perennial underachievers, or we can say chokers to an extent. They have an abysmal record in the UCL last 16 over the last few seasons. This time around, they were expected to go the extra mile due to their intense summer transfer activity. But once again they bottled it.

They lacked incisiveness and intensity when what they needed was to score a goal or two. Instead, they committed glaring defensive blunders and never looked like staging a comeback when things didn't go their way.

This to me was the most glaring reason they lost the tie to Real Madrid.