After four exciting quarter-finals, the riots stopped in the fourth match of the Champions League, on Sunday between Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain in Lisbon.
Five-time winner Bayern are back in the top competition for the first time since 2013 after finishing a four-match winning streak in the semi-finals with Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Lyon.
PSG reached the top flight for the first time, having struggled to translate their French league dominance into a real challenge in Europe until the Lisbon victories over Atalanta and RB Leipzig secured their place.
For the first time since 1998, the Champions League final will feature two groups that entered the festival as national champions, a return to the days of the old European Cup where the winners of a country’s name were allowed to participate.
Leipzig may not put a glove on PSG, but while Bayern ended up winning on the same line against Lyon, the German club relies much more on their opponent’s tea in the face of the goal.
It is nothing that can be associated with Neymar, however, he has been wasting great opportunities since the festival moved to Portugal, as opposed to Atalanta and Leipzig.
Neymar’s brilliant performances and ambidextinity have already illuminated the Estadio da Luz, but Sunday is potentially 90 minutes from the end of his mission.
The 28-year-old scored in the 2015 final for Barcelona and may be the third player to score in the top for two other teams, along with Cristiano Ronaldo and Mario Mandzukic. In 19 Champions League appearances with PSG, Neymar has been directly involved in 23 goals, scoring 14 times and assisting nine.
Neymar swapped the Camp Nou for Princes Park after playing a key role in sending PSG to La Remount in 2017, when the world record movement of 198 million pounds largely condensed into a deal that suited both sides.
The PSG would have the superstar to close the gap with the elite competing for Champions League honors, while the player willing to rid himself of Lionel Messi’s shadow and sold the vision of being better positioned to win the Ballon d’Or, an obsession among Brazilians. Gold boys.
With Kylian Mbappé, who then moved permanently from Monaco the following summer for 163 million pounds, it’s a team he bought at an exorbitant price to rule across Europe.
As Barcelona teeters over the delay of a reconstruction, Parisians culminate at the right time on the larger stage.
Surprisingly, Bayern have only been for 22 minutes this calendar year, which can be a double-edged sword given the novelty that PSG would bring to an early purpose.
Lyon was the most productive team in the first 15 minutes of Wednesday’s semi-final, but could not prove their luck. Bayern find that PSG will not be so generous.
Tuchel’s team has scored 136 goals this season and is looking to bury groups in halftime. Atalanta suffocated long before Angel Di Maria doubled PSG’s advantage on Tuesday, and the same technique can be taken despite the most sensible opposition.
Tuchel, who has lost more matches in his coaching career to Bayern than any other team, will turn to his agile forwards to exploit Bayern’s weakness in the lag.
Mbappé, in particular, presents a real challenge given its lightning speed from the left flank. Neymar’s ability to run from deeper positions and Di Maria’s ability to pick them with the best pass means Bayern’s bottom line will be tested on Sunday.
Just as Dayot Upamecano felt that managing the world’s top two players was his most complicated career project to date, it will be desirable to see if Bayern coach Hansi Flick fosters the same area where Neymar and Mbappé can wreak havoc.
Flick is the sixth user to play and lead the same team in a Champions League final, having played in Bayern’s 2–1 loss in the 1987 final to Porto, and may be the first of six to lose as a player and coach in a singles club.
“Paris is a wonderful team,” the Bayern coach said. “Let’s look at some things, we know they have fast players. We will try to organize our defense, but we know that our greatest strength is to put pressure on our conflicting parties.”
PSG knows Bayern’s top scorer Robert Lewandowski, who leads the tournament’s goalscoring lists with 15 goals this season and has discovered target times in all competitions.
Then there is the 19-year-old left-back Alphonso Davies, the tournament’s most exciting young player born in a refugee camp in Ghana before moving to Canada, which represents national teams.
Tactically, the latter pits two opposing German coaches against each other just for a moment in tournament history.
Tuchel, the former coach of Borussia Dortmund, controlled to give the champion team of France an assembly, the balance and metal that had been lacking in recent years.
Flick took over as Bayern’s manager until November, but had an astonishing impact. Since mid-December, Bayern have achieved 28 wins and a solo draw, scoring 97 goals and awarding only 22.
In past editions, since PSG’s public shareholders’ organization, Qatar Sports Investments, bought the club in 2011, the fact that the club did not reflect the national good fortune in Europe was partly due to a suspicious defence.
But this season has been evident in greater solidity: PSG has kept seven blank sheets in 10 Champions League matches, while Bayern have conceded 8 goals to their four war games. Marquinhos provided Tuchel’s team with a welcome protective demonstration to allow 35-year-old Thiago Silva to be reborn alongside Presnel Kimpembe, in constant improvement.
But Tuchel’s team did not face a lead with the same strength as Bayern. Lewandowski has scored in nine consecutive Champions League games, and his total of 15 this season puts him in two of Ronaldo’s 17 record in 2013/14.
Bayern Munich’s good fortune to reach the Champions League final was based on a very different tactical technique, however, it is a dicy technique opposed to PSG, leaving coach Flick with a main dilemma.
The Bundesliga team plays a competitive game of tension, immobilizing their opponents, maintaining tension in their defense and making it difficult for them to move the ball through the midfield.
But what if the PSG beat the press? Leon Goretzka and Thiago Alcantara naturally have no midfielders, with Goretzka in the specific assist to repel rival defenses.
Its team-based formula entails the possibility of being repelled through well-constructed counterattacks.
Lyon controlled to do just that on Wednesday, but did not have the clinical end to make the most of the opportunities that presented the opportunity. Neymar and Mbappé probably wouldn’t forgive that much.
Bayern, who beat Barcelona 8-2 in the quarter-finals, also have experience. The Bavarians have already played in the Champions League final 10 times, winning their fifth name in 2013.
How is the red machine prevented? Bayern have won a record 10 consecutive Champions League matches, while lately it has a 20-match winning streak in all competitions.
They have imposed the long term since Flick took over in November. In 2020, no team controlled to beat Bayern, only RB Leipzig controlled a draw in February.
In fact, Bayern have scored 42 goals at the festival this season with an average of 4.2 goals consistent with the game, Barcelona in 1999/2000 has scored more in a season without getting married (45) after betting 16 games this season.
The PSG has reached the quarter-finals only once and its functionality in Europe came here in the last European Cup Winners’ Cup, which it won in 1996. As Bayern prepare for their 11th European Cup final, they will be the first of the PSG.
This promises to be a classic: Neymar vs. Lewandowski. Mbappé in front of Muller. Gnabry unlike Di Maria. Basketball on a blue ribbon occasion to conclude this season of maximum uniqueness.
Tuchel would possibly be tempted to line up the same starting lineup for PSG, which fought Leipzig. IdrissaGueye (muscular), Layvin Kurzawa (thigh) and Keylor Navas (thigh) are all doubtful. PSG hopes to start with goalkeeper Navas and midfielder Marco Verratti if the duo can improve their form.
Mauro Icardi would possibly have to settle for a role on the substitutes’ bench after Angel Di Maria excelled on his return to the side.
Jerome Boateng (hit) is the only doubt for Bayern Munich, and if he declared himself fit, Flick would line up an unchanged team. Bayern will have to turn to Niklas Sule if Boateng is ruled out, but Lucas Hernandez and Javi Martinez are other options.
Flick may be tempted to reinstate right-back Benjamin Pavard and push Joshua Kimmich into midfield in front of Leon Goretzka.