Paris. Kylian Mbappe had warmed up since the half-time break and started to take off his substitute jacket when an old acquaintance reminded him.
Kingsley Coman, one of a long line of players rejected by Paris Saint-Germain, decided the 2020 Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.
Tonight he put the knife in his old club and turned again.
It doesn’t matter that he started on the bench. The first round of 16 meeting Bayern Munich was still mostly about Kylian Mbappe from the Parisian front. Paris Saint-Germain is not short of attractive attacking players, but after adventures in Qatar before Christmas, both Neymar and Lionel Messi appeared tepid.
PSG had to pay for the toilet waste it was clear in the end. They’ve already lost four games this side of the New Year, and they’ve also lost all of 2023. However, fans defied TiVo representing fist-beating Germans on the sidelines.
“Risky,” a PSG employee muttered in my ear before kick-off.
Bayern Munich came to Paris with a slightly better curve of form. For once, the German giants have had to struggle a bit in the Bundesliga this year, but after three consecutive draws in January, they had a pair of sure three points with them in the meeting with Paris Saint-Germain. In the first half at the Parc des Princes, the Germans unexpectedly easily dominated.
Bayern certainly didn’t play their full record, but they had nearly 60 percent possession in the first half as they barely let PSG in front once. With ten minutes remaining in the first half, the home team had yet to score a goal.
A team, and one cannot stress this enough, with Neymar and Lionel Messi up front and Kylian Mbappe on the bench (difficult to score from there for sure, that must be admitted).
sat down and frowned
Twenty minutes later, Neymar went down after a two-minute fight in the attacking half of the pitch. None of the team members came forward to check the situation. It was a shot that might tell more about the mood in Paris than the first-half stats. Brasen hasn’t been the same lately, and in recent weeks rumors about his future at the club have swirled as usual. It is a sign of spring in Paris in the same way that birdsong and the magical afternoon light of the French capital are. And on the bench sat Kylian Mbappe, frowning.
Bayern Munich had to drop Sadio Mane and Manuel Neuer in the end, pinning their hopes on Eric Maxim Choup-Moting and signing lightning strike Jan Sommer instead. Nothing makes Bayern Munich shudder. The question was what could make this team shudder at all after 45 minutes.
Paris Saint-Germain opened the second half with more energy and a progressive spirit. In particular, Kylian Mbappé opened some bursts along the touchline, which were the best from the home team so far during the match, even if they occurred off the pitch.
He continues to ruin the party
When Christophe Galtier pointed him out, Mbappe ran into the booth to take off the substitute’s jacket. He didn’t have time to jump in before Bayern Munich took the lead. It was Kingsley Coman who did it, having to run in to a cross from substitute Alphonso Davies on the left wing unguarded. It was an unpleasant echo from the home team’s past. Parisian boy Koeman belonged to PSG at the start of (what was supposed to be) the golden era, but had to make way for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his ilk in 2013 and has since ruined the party for his boyhood club in the most brutal of ways. road. The 2020 Champions League final between the two teams was famous for Koeman’s decision in favor of Bayern, and tonight he deceived Gianluigi Donnarumma very easily at the beginning of the second half and the curtain fell on the halfway mark in the Parc des Princes.
It was definitely not undeserved. It was a bit cheap.
And that didn’t help PSG against the Devils. The hosts needed to recover, but Sergio Ramos fumbled the ball, Marco Verratti fumbled, and Kylian Mbappe’s first touch made a completely unsuccessful pass directly into Bayern’s gap.
A few minutes later, it looked like a Paris acquaintance would kill the occasion, when Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting went close to scoring, all alone in the penalty area on a counter-attack, then came agonizingly close, hitting the bar from close range afterwards. post conversion.
Choupo-Moting was for several seasons a beloved feature at the Parc des Princes, a player to whom both curves sang love songs. Not because it was good, it wasn’t, but because it was real. A man of flesh and blood – and sometimes incomprehensibly wooden legs – among the stars. Tonight he was one of the big threats to the game at the Parc des Princes.
“playing with death”
Eventually, Kylian Mbappe’s quick deep kicks came into play at the Parc des Princes, and it appeared to be 1-1 after a cross from Nuno Mendes slotted in at high speed from Mbappe. But the video assistant referee wanted differently, the referee ruled offside and the goal score had to be adjusted again.
PSG had one last chance, when Benjamin Pavard marginally clipped Leo Messi just outside the penalty area and headed off. But the free kick came to nothing and Bayern Munich managed to return home with an impressive away win in the round of 16 against Paris Saint-Germain without going up significantly. There are three weeks until the return of the Allianz Arena and of course there is still a lot that can happen. But PSG is already playing to death in February. It is usually expensive.