FC Bayern is under pressure game after game in the Champions League given the bankruptcies against Aston Villa and Barcelona. Ideally, the remaining games against Paris, Bratislava, Donetsk and Feyenoord must all be won in order to slip into the top 8.
The most difficult task awaits Vincent Kompany’s men on Tuesday evening, when the 2020 CL final is rematched against Paris Saint-Germain. Despite everything, the Munich team are also favored against the French capital club.
We reveal five reasons why Bayern beat PSG:
The days of Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar are over. Paris Saint-Germain has repeatedly brought in new offensive players for a lot of money, including Randal Kolo-Muani and Gancalo Ramos, but hardly any of these transfers have really made a difference.
Bradley Barcola, Marco Asensio and Ousmane Dembélé will probably start against FC Bayern. Although that doesn’t sound bad, the trio is not of the highest quality. The most dangerous weapon, Ousmane Dembélé, lacks consistency and Barcola also has good and sometimes not so good days. This is enough to kill Ligue 1, but three goals in four CL matches speak a different story.
FC Bayern only really had a blast offensively against Zagreb in the CL, but they still have the better and more consistent offense. Harry Kane and Jamal Musiala in particular are in top form and bring a level that no PSG offensive force can permanently embody. Both are absolute guarantees for offensive power and goals, apart from the fact that one or two strong offensive players can also be called up.
FC Bayern and Paris Saint-Germain have met regularly in recent years. The most famous duel of the last five years was of course the 2020 Champions League final, which the Munich team won. Since then, the two teams have met in the knockout phase in 2021 and 2023.
A year after losing the CL final, PSG took revenge with a 1-2 defeat and a 3-2 win and a total of more away goals. In 2023 it was FC Bayern’s turn again and won 2-0 and 1-0. The bottom line is that the Reds have won four of the last five matches and even the one 2-3 defeat resulted from bad luck and many missed opportunities. Underneath – like the best of Amazon Prime documented – especially Joshua Kimmich’s locker suffered.
So you can say that Paris Saint-Germain is one of the top clubs that Munich particularly likes.
FC Bayern can hardly be defeated in the Champions League in their own stadium. The last defeat in Munich’s Allianz Arena was on April 7, 2021 and was therefore more than three and a half years ago. Incidentally, the opponent here was Paris Saint-Germain.
In recent years, the Munich team has been able to defeat numerous big teams such as FC Arsenal, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan and, in 2023, Paris Saint-Germain again. In the current CL season, all home games were also won, the memorable game against Dinamo Zagreb even 9-2.
Paris has only had one away game in the premier class this season and lost it 2-0 at Arsenal. Since losing the final against Bayern in 2020, PSG has always been eliminated from the race for the handle pot in the four following years by losing away games.
FC Bayern certainly didn’t cover themselves with glory in the Champions League game against FC Barcelona. However, the Munich team learned the right lessons from the sometimes wild 1:4 defeat. In fact, coach Vincent Kompany’s men have since won all six competitive games without conceding a goal. In the last three matches against Benfica, St. Pauli and Augsburg, the opposing teams never had more than 0.10 x-goals. This is a remarkable result, even if no opposing team could muster an offensive like PSG.
Nevertheless, it is in no way to be expected that Bayern will act as confusedly as they did in Barcelona. Kompany and his coaching team seem to have turned the right screws here. In addition, defenders like Kim Min-jae and Alphonso Davies are in top form and have gained massive amounts of self-confidence. So you shouldn’t worry too much about Paris being at the back again.
Although FC Bayern’s Champions League season has certainly not been a masterclass so far, Paris has still managed to undercut Munich’s record. Although PSG were able to play three of their first four games at home, the club only has three goals and four points. The club is currently in 25th place and would therefore not even qualify for the playoffs.
The remaining program is also not easy with Manchester City, among others, which increases the pressure for the French. So far, the team, which is in a bit of a state of flux after Kylian Mbappé, has not yet been able to prove that it can handle such stressful situations. A trip to the Allianz Arena is probably the last thing you want in a situation like this.
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