PSG had license to pass into the center of the pitch, but they avoided it for some reason for the entire first half of the Champions League final. Every central pass was not met by instant pressure from Arsenal and would have opened up space on the wings.

It was a frustrating pattern.

Joao Neves or Vitinha would drop into the center of the pitch, acting as a quarterback.

There was trepidation and a strange general lack of awareness for where the spaces were.

It wasn’t nervousness. It seemed premeditated. You can surmise that from Vitinha’s body language. He was ignoring open passing lanes.

As a neutral, I wanted to pull my hair out.

The law of contraction and expansion dictates that we must attract pressure first to open up space.

Pass central, Arsenal contract towards the ball. Then you pass out to the wing, expand, and enjoy the additional space.

Then, on the next possession or the possession after that, Arsenal are going to try to contract before that first pass central, which will open up space on the wing.

PSG are known for passing around the horseshoe. Playing wide. But this was different and puzzling.

They’ve had joy with forward passes in the half-spaces in previous matches this season in the Champions League, especially against Bayern Munich in the quarter-final.

What was different in the final?

If you never pass inside, you are stuck on the fringes trying to chip balls over the top to underlapping or overlapping runs towards the corner flag on the fringes of the penalty box.

And that is what we saw.

You couldn’t even say that PSG were possessing the ball to wait for a mistake from Arsenal because even if the first layer of three Arsenal defenders made a mistake, the second layer of three defenders was waiting behind them.

They tried to rotate, bringing Kvaratskhelia central, moving Doue wide left, varying who occupied the wing, the half-space, or who dropped back to be that quarterback. But none of that is effective if you are unwilling to take a chance. To trust you can complete a simple forward pass and quickly one- or two-touch out of the center of the pitch.

For that reason alone, PSG deserved to draw.