After the 5-4 in the first leg in Paris, a return to the top is expected. Kompany: “It’s difficult to imagine either team changing what brought them here”
Last goal challenge, part two. Bayern and PSG are the teams that have scored the most in this edition of the Champions League. As with the result of the first leg (5-4), the French are ahead by just one goal: 43-42. Barcelona’s 2000 record (45 goals) is wavering, it could already be broken this evening, but it should also be remembered that the Blaugrana did not win the tournament that opened the new century (Real Madrid won it), but were knocked out in the semi-final by Valencia thanks also to a terrible 4-1 suffered in the first match. Translated: scoring a lot can be useful, but not opening the defense can be even more profitable. The doubt about last week’s exaggerated performance in Paris has divided Europe: masterpiece or (defensive) disaster? There wasn’t a single conclusion, certainly the quality expressed reached stratospheric levels and the work of the defenders must always be compared to the attitude of the team and the abilities of those in front of you: “It’s difficult to imagine that one of the two teams changes what brought them here”, commented Vincent Kompany yesterday, the defeated coach who needs a two-goal advantage to reach the club’s twelfth final.
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Luis Enrique’s response is in the same vein: “Bayern can easily score a goal, but so can we. So we don’t want to defend a result, we want to win this match too.” In this stadium twelve months ago PSG won the first Champions League in its history with a resounding 5-0 win over Inter. The Spanish coach intended to repeat the same approach programme, but the hotel of the 2025 final is also the one where Bayern is staying and a request to move was immediately returned to the sender: the dispute over the hotel, full of superstition and convenience, was resolved in favor of the real hosts. The rest will be seen on the pitch, without fundamental changes: “If I said I would propose something special it would be stupid. I played for Guardiola and it’s not true that he revolutionized positions in the most important matches, it was just chatter from the outside.” Bayern could feature the same lineup as the first leg, including the dubious Davies-Laimer on the left flank (in Paris they played one half each). The European champions have lost Hakimi but have Fabian Ruiz back in a run-off with Mayulu to take Zaire-Emery’s place in midfield, destined for the right wing in the former Inter player’s role.
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Bayern have scored 174 goals in 51 matches this season, are in the running for the Triple as they are in the German Cup final and have already won the Bundesliga. PSG finished last season by losing the final of the Club World Cup but then only exited the national cup, while they took home the super cups (UEFA and French) and are dominating Ligue 1. They are teams used to winning, who fuel their ambitions with successes, without impediments from a full belly. In Monaco, coming second is a crime, and often costs the coaches their jobs. In Paris they have experienced many euro-disappointments in the squandering of recent years, before the advent of Luis Enrique and the sensible purchases, always with bundles of millions, but more functional to the project.
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Harry Kane is two goals away from the record of 15 goals for Bayern in cup competitions set by Jürgen Klinsmann and Robert Lewandowski. Michael Olise will try to demonstrate in front of many of his national team mates, first of all the Golden Ball winner Ousmane Dembélé, that he is the Frenchman with the most class. Between Luis Diaz and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia it will be a confrontation made of speed and pure class. In the first leg they enchanted with their superb goals. The most obvious common opinion is that this was an early final. Better to have it over two games instead: it could become a doubled spectacle, if someone doesn’t betray tonight.
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