PARIS — Bayern Munich took control of their Champions League round-of-16 match with Paris Saint-Germain as Kingsley Coman‘s goal gave them a 1-0 victory at Parc des Princes on Tuesday.
Bayern dominated much of the game and had chances to double their lead after Coman’s 53rd minute winner. Up to that point, the likes of Leo Messi and Neymar were struggling to find their way into the match, and it was the introduction of Kylian Mbappe in the second half that shifted the balance of the game back into the hosts’ favour.
Mbappe had two goals disallowed due to offside, while Messi had a shot turned over by a brilliant block from Bayern defender Benjamin Pavard block. But Pavard’s late red card for a second bookable offence was the only blight on an otherwise near-perfect evening for Julian Nagelsmann’s Bayern Munich. PSG and manager Christophe Galtier have it all to do if they are to overturn this deficit in Munich on March 8 for the return leg.
Rapid reaction
1. Bayern Munich’s well-executed game plan ensures the win
For about 75 minutes, Bayern enjoyed complete control of the match. The first half was a dire affair for both sides, restricted to one chance from Bayern’s Joshua Kimmich, but the visitor’s resolute set-up prevented PSG from getting into the game. For the first 45 minutes they pushed and pulled PSG, testing them out with jabs but then waited until the opening stages of the second-half to start landing a series of haymakers.
The winning punch came from one of PSG’s former sons Coman — the same man who scored the winner when the two teams met in the Champions League final back in 2020. It was a neatly-worked goal as half-time substitute Alphonso Davies‘ cross found an unmarked Coman, who side-footed it home underneath goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. Coman didn’t celebrate, the crowd went silent, and Bayern trotted back to the halfway line to plan another series of carefully-crafted attacks.
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That gave Bayern the platform to go close again with Donnarumma, pushing a Eric Choupo-Moting header onto the post and Dayot Upamecano planting a close-range header off a corner straight at the Italian goalkeeper. They were in control with Kimmich and Leon Goretzka suffocating the middle of the pitch, with Jamal Musiala dropping deep when required to snaffle up a loose ball. The same went for Choupo-Moting, whose movement up front pushed and pulled the PSG defence out of position and allowed Coman to get that space for the opener.
In short, PSG barely had a sniff for 75 minutes or so, until they unleashed Mbappe. VAR twice came to Bayern’s aid with Mbappe having two goals ruled out through offside. The first was obvious — coming after his break saw a shot well saved at close range by Yann Sommer. Sommer then parried the rebound effort from Neymar into Mbappe’s path but he was well offside. Mbappe had another close range finish that was again chalked out by VAR for the slimmest of margins. Lionel Messi finally had a decent chance in the 84th minute, but Pavard got in a key block. Bayern were finally scrambled, but the core of the team stayed true and guided them to a hugely important 1-0 victory. Nagelsmann won this battle of the minds.
2. Mbappe couldn’t save a PSG side that looked lost without him
When Mbappe picked up the hamstring injury at the start of February, he was given a three-week timescale for recovery. But Mbappe isn’t like other athletes, and there he was on the hour-mark ready to come on and save PSG.
At that stage, PSG had a lowly expected goals, or xG, of 0.04, meaning they hadn’t generated any half-decent scoring chances. Their star power had misfired, with the only danger to Sommer’s concentration in goal coming from the smoke from the flares lit by Bayern fans.
