What happens when one super-club collides with another? Anarchy. Beautiful, absurd, unbridled anarchy, and not only that, we get to watch it all over again this time next week.
Best of luck eclipsing this extravaganza, Atletico Madrid and Arsenal. To follow this bountiful banquet between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, which may well go down as one of the greatest European games of all time once we have the opportunity to catch our breath, is almost like a couple of crashing atoms trying to upstage the Big Bang.
Champions League semi-finals can be cagey. This first leg at the Parc des Princes was the opposite, sensationally so. It was football as a form of expression. Risk and reward. We attack, you attack, may the men with the most goals win and defending be damned.
There was Michael Olise on Bayern’s right-hand side toying with his markers, and Luis Diaz sprinting at defenders down the left. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia showing why he is the Georgian best for PSG, and Desire Doue mimicking on the other side. Then we had two strikers – the current Ballon d’Or holder in Ousmane Dembele and potentially its winner-in-waiting in Harry Kane – scoring amid it all.
It was refreshing to see such positivity in the play of both sides, with less passing sideways for passing’s sake and more purpose whenever the ball was kicked. While any defenders watching may have wept for their art, everyone else was grateful for the dedication to attacking.
How PSG made it 3-2 – securing a lead they would ultimately hold on to – was via a controversial penalty awarded for a handball by Alphonse Davies, whose only crime was owning a left arm as he blocked Dembele’s cross. As one fellow scribe said, it resembled a stain on the Mona Lisa, this match having been a masterpiece before that moment.
Ousmane Dembele scored twice as PSG beat Bayern Munich in a nine-goal thriller in Paris
Luis Diaz’s strike, after a superb Harry Kane pass, reduced the deficit to 5-4 on a night of beautiful anarchy
Bayern were brave in continuing to push players up the pitch, almost as if they had forgotten a second leg at the Allianz Arena awaited. Kvaratskhelia and Dembele scored PSG’s fourth and fifth goals, each arriving like a dagger to the heart of the suspended Vincent Kompany watching from the stands, until Dayot Upamecano and Diaz grabbed goals back for 5-4 to complete an extraordinary evening.
Bayern never stopped trying to score, even replacing a midfielder in Aleksandar Pavlovic for a striker in Nicolas Jackson in stoppage time.
Kane scored his 54th goal of the season for his club to get the chaos going on the night, and said afterwards: ‘You saw two high-level teams. We fought, and we clawed, and we’re back in the tie.’
Winning the Champions League might be the Ballon d’Or moment that Kane has been waiting for. He is 32 years old now, turning 33 in July, and when Bayern offer him his new deal this summer, he might wish to make sure there is a bumper bonus in there related to that award.
First, though, to win the Champions League, Bayern had to overcome the might of PSG, and when Diaz appeared through, he was hacked down by Willian Pacho. Referee Sandro Schare awarded the penalty, Kane stepped up and, of course, scored.
Kvaratskhelia’s equaliser was excellent, the way he had such little space while being marked by Josep Stanisic and yet created enough to curl into the corner.
For all the attacking talent on show, it was a corner from Dembele and header from Joao Neves – all 5ft 9in of him as the smallest player on the pitch – which handed PSG their 2-1 lead. Then arrived another goal from the top shelf as Olise squeezed through the Parisian defence and, measured at 57mph, blasted beyond Matvei Safonov for 2-2.
PSG were awarded their penalty in first-half stoppage time for Davies blocking Dembele’s cross with his arm. It was harsh, a clear case of referees meddling where they need not have bothered make their presence felt in such a riveting contest.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia again showed his class with two goals in one of the greatest European games of all time
PSG did not mind too much. Their lead was restored via Dembele’s spot-kick as the defending champions sought to exploit Bayern’s eagerness to attack.
Kvaratskhelia and Dembele took them to five goals on the night, before Bayern rallied with two more of their own from Upamecano and Diaz. At 5-4, either side could yet claim passage to a final against Atletico or Arsenal, and potentially their place in the pantheon of great European champions.
Anyway, same again next week? Yes, please. Yours sincerely, the neutrals.
