Bayern Munich, of Colombian Luis Diaz, did not manage to overcome at home the adverse 5-4 scoreline it brought from Paris in the first leg against Paris Saint Germain (PSG). In this Wednesday’s match, the German team could only draw 1-1 with the French side, for an aggregate score of 6-5. The place in the Champions League final went to PSG.
Just after the first two minutes of the match had passed, the Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, an incisive forward of PSG, ran with the ball from midfield to the end line. He lifted his head and saw Dembele making a run. He made a cutback pass, and Dembele blasted the German goalkeeper Neuer. It was the only goal of the match.
With that solitary goal, PSG increased the one-goal advantage it brought from the match in Paris (5-4) and closed the aggregate at 6-4, a difference that Bayern did not manage even to equal to force the extension of the match into extra time, or perhaps to a definition from the penalty spot.
The German team felt the goal against them like a blow and could not recover. In the first 25 minutes, Kvaratskhelia seemed to be playing in the neighborhood: with ease he had several incursions into Bayern’s half, bringing some danger to the goal guarded by Neuer.
Bayern’s front three did not work
After that, the match became monotonous and its course unfolded amid fouls by both teams. In the stands, Bayern supporters began to fall into desperation, and their team looked lost on the field.
In the 21st minute, Diaz beat his marker and managed to get off a shot very much in his style, although that attempt went over Safonov’s goal. Five minutes later, it would be Olise who tried, also without success. That would be the constant for these two Bayern stars in whom the team had placed its hopes.
Harry Kane, the other member of this front three that the specialized press came to describe as “lethal,” among other things because they managed to secure the Bundesliga trophy for Bayern ahead of time, did not appear anywhere. He was lackluster and lost, with little impact on the match, and only in the final minutes did he manage to equalize the game.
Although at the end of the first half Bayern managed to tilt the field, it did not succeed in breaking through PSG’s goal. In the second half, as the minutes passed, the two goals Bayern needed to equalize the tie became more unreachable, heavier.
That second half was a copy of the first. But it had no point of comparison with the intense first leg played a week earlier, which for many was the best match in the history of football. Exaggeration or not, it made such a good impression that the return leg, the decisive one, was greatly overshadowed.
Now, PSG will face Arsenal in the Champions League final, in Budapest, on May 30.