Sports Weekly reporter Shen Tianhao from Allianz Arena
"We're going to Budapest and taking you to St. Helena!"
Before the game against Paris, Bayern fans put up such a slogan. Ten minutes later, the Champions League theme song played, and the carefully prepared collage in the South Stand finally appeared. It was a "kicker". Yes, it was just a player without an identity mark. , with the Bayern team logo on his shorts and the slogan "Enter the Final" underneath. The small banner before was regarded as Bayern's only response to the first-round stand show of Paris fans. At that time, the Parisians showed Napoleon's conquest of Europe at the Parc des Princes. Napoleon is not believed by Bayern. "Kaiser Franz" is the opposite of Napoleon. They feel that as long as they play the ball well, they should be rewarded.
It was the team led by Kompany that tried to "be themselves", and Luis Enrique was more cunning. After winning the first leg 5-4, the Paris coach declared, "Going to Munich a week later, I think we have to score at least three goals to advance. We have already "I'm ready for this", he deceived everyone. Paris took a one-goal lead early, and then had enough capital to make corresponding changes. In the following 90 minutes, they made the idealistic Bayern miserable.
Controversial whistle ignites Allianz’s anger
It seems that Bayern is a bit unprepared for Paris' "rush to the start" tactics. Favian Ruiz pushed the ball straight out, and the ball found the position behind Upamecano. Then, after Kvaratskhelia received the ball, he ran quickly and galloped, and then sent the perfect cross pass. At this time, Paris had so many outflanking points in the penalty area that Dembele had no defensive personnel there. He easily scored from the back point. However, who is the main contributor to this goal, it must be Kvala Tskhelia: he first started a short pass with Favian in his own half, and then used his astonishing speed to quickly move forward, and finally sent an assist.
Kvara has goalscoring action, assisting action, running time, defensive action, and support performance. When he entered the Champions League round of 16, he showed amazing energy. In every Champions League game since then, he has directly contributed in scoring. In a total of six games against Chelsea, Liverpool, and Bayern, he has scored 6 goals and 3 assists. Paris successfully reached the final, and the Georgian should be remembered for his main contribution. Unfortunately, such a performance happened in a World Cup year, making him very likely to leave regrets in the Ballon d'Or selection.
Until this time, Bayern still believed that it had enough determination and firepower to achieve a magnificent reversal in another game with many goals, accompanied by the singing of 75,000 fans. However, they encountered obstacles one after another in the subsequent period. Part of the reason was that Paris had successful defensive measures, which was specifically reflected in Pacho's precise step forward to steal Olise. Part of the reason was that the attacking players were not precise enough and the cooperation failed, such as the cooperation between Musiala and Kane. In addition, part of the reason was due to disputes over penalties. The battle between Olise and Nuno Mendes may be the most intense wing confrontation you can witness today. In the 8th minute of the game, the Portuguese left back brought his opponent to the ground and received a yellow card. Then, 20 minutes later, he committed a handball foul, which put him at risk of being sent off. The referee Pineiro initially planned to whistle for the foul. However, at this time, the fourth official indicated that Laimer had committed handball before. Based on this, the referee Pineiro changed his original decision.
Bayern launched a fierce protest, and the whole stadium was filled with boos. After only 2 minutes, the smell of gunpowder continued to escalate. Paris made a mistake during the clearance. Joao Neves touched the ball with his arm in the penalty area. This time, the referee also did not whistle according to the new rules. According to this regulation, the team When the ball kicked by a friend hit the arm, it did not constitute a foul. Several consecutive unfavorable penalties, plus being two goals behind the overall score, caused the home team fans to become angry. Afterwards, when Paris took a corner kick, Bayern fans angrily threw the beer glass and the liquid inside towards the corner flag area. Seeing that the situation was slightly out of control, Neuer hurried to the corner flag area and called on his team's fans to calm down.
Kompany has no habit of talking about referees in the past, and there is no need to talk about it. However, this time, he disagreed with Pineiro's two decisions. He said: "I watched the replay three times, and there is no picture that Conrad (Lemer) touched with his hand. Did anyone see any other footage here that could prove Laimer's handball? I was only 10 meters away from where the action happened, and I didn't think for a second that it was a second yellow card."
Then there is the handball situation in the penalty area: in Paris, we were awarded a penalty kick. They said the ball first touched Alphonso Davies' body and then his hand. However, since the direction of the ball was a cross and went straight towards the goal, it was still ruled a penalty kick. Anyone who has ever played football knows that the ball is impossible to handle: it hits your body and then bounces into your hands. Today, the opponent's (Neves) hand was in the air and the ball hit his hand. As a result, because it was kicked by a teammate, no penalty was awarded. Okay, but that teammate is 10 meters away from him. In fact, I rarely see intentional handballs within a clearly defined penalty area, and most handballs that are called fouls are unintentional. These circumstances are clear to all. However, I still don't want to deny Paris' performance, because they are an extremely outstanding team.
Strange Paris, victorious Paris
If the score could be equalized at the end of the half, Bayern would be able to put tremendous pressure on their opponents in the second half. Unfortunately, things turned out contrary to expectations. Playing against the Paris team has a particularly special meaning for Musiala: in events such as the Club World Cup held last summer, he suffered a serious injury during the competition between this group. Bayern's No. 10, Musiala, had consecutive opportunities before the end of the half. However, his relatively low shot was blocked by Safonov. The subsequent dodge shot slightly deviated from the correct direction. The last attempt was to cut in from the left, and the ball went high over the crossbar. All of this happened within a period of only one and a half minutes, and Musiala's performance during this period only ended here.
Bayern failed to gain stronger fighting spirit in the midfield locker room, but Paris seemed more and more calm. At the beginning of the second half, they were the side closer to scoring. If Neuer hadn't saved the ball three times in 8 minutes, the suspense of the two rounds would have ended early. Olise gradually became quieter, and Nuno Mendes was no longer in trouble. This was thanks to his teammates Favian Ruiz and Kvarac Helia on the left half of the pitch, who successfully defended Bayern's number one attacking point. On the other side, Zaire Emery, who replaced Achraf in the starting lineup, also effectively suppressed the performance of Dias, who performed well in the first round. Harry Kane probably took on a lot of support work, lacked a direct threat to the goal, and the accuracy of his passing in this game was not satisfactory. He scored his 14th goal in the Champions League this season in the 4th minute of stoppage time, but unfortunately it was too late.
It’s not that people in Paris are heading to St. Helena, and Bayern can’t travel to Budapest. The team led by Luis Enrique has reached the Champions League finals for two consecutive years, and when facing Arsenal, it will definitely be the side that more people have high hopes for. "Do you still remember what I said after the group stage deadline? Do you remember? You said: I don't see any team that is better than us." The head coach of Paris stated this at the post-match press conference. In the past two seasons, Paris always looked in crisis in the first half, but it took on a new look when spring came.
Only this time, Paris' path to victory felt slightly unfamiliar. Seeing such new possibilities, Enrique, the coach, said happily that we can play better, or we can play less well. Just today, we proved that even if we have to defend low for a long time, we can still do it. We don't prefer this, after all, we didn't select these players to play this way, but if we have to do this, we will have no hesitation. We love the beauty of football, but we also love fighting.
Apart from applause, what did Bayern learn?
Bayern exited amidst the applause of the fans. Even if they have regrets, they are still one of the most beautiful teams in recent years. Kompany said that the two teams were of equal strength, but his side could have done better in shooting and the final pass. He was proud of his team: "How many times have you seen Paris play like today? I think we successfully destroyed their press and there were a lot of one-on-one situations on the wing. If it were another day, the result might have been different."
After the previous elimination of Real Madrid, Kompany declared at the press conference that the outside world underestimated Bayern in the past, but now they are overly praising Bayern. What was he worried about at that time? Paris first made an early start and then retreated. Was this within his expectation? In response to the question raised by the author after the game, the Bayern coach gave this response: "For me, the key is: don't believe in excessive hype, and don't believe in dramatic narratives. The reason why I was calm today is because I was able to put it in the right position; I was calm after eliminating Real Madrid because I understand that days like today are also possible." The only thing I want to say is that the level of both sides in this game is extremely similar. Just like the previous confrontations between the two teams, the decision is always based on details and moments. In addition, people have completely different opinions on some of the most critical decisions in the game.
Not only did he deduce the results backwards, but also came to the conclusion that "the winner is always justified". Kompany denied it. Even so, the meeting between Paris and Arsenal in the final may give Bayern something to think about – although compared to Kompany. This is more of Abel's job. What Paris has is the best full-back combination in the world (Achraf + Nuno Mendes, even if the former is absent this time), and it also has the most technical midfield trio. They give a lot of help to the wingers, which makes the work of Kvara, Douai, Dembélé and Barcola always easier than that of their opposite counterparts. One of the most reliable central defender combinations today (referring to Gabriel and Saliba) is owned by Arsenal, which makes them very capable of withstanding pressure in the knockout rounds. In contrast, Bayern still has differences in quality in the midfield and backfield areas, especially in the full-back position.
For Kompany himself, this is also a valuable lesson. The seemingly crazy Luis Enrique showed his cold side in such a crucial matchup. If you want to win the Big Ears Cup, you must first learn to become a "chameleon." This championship usually belongs to the most balanced team. Whether it is Conte who worries about gains and losses, or Guardiola in recent years, there are always more regrets than successes in this event. Paris successfully advanced with "another face", but Bayern failed to play the kind of game they expected. Even with the singing and the shaking red walls of the south stand, you can still clearly understand why some teams want to directly name it "Cathedral" when they want to build a new stadium. However, this time, fanatical belief did not win in the end.