Bayern ease past PSG and into UCL quarterfinals
Bayern Munich beat PSG at home to advance to the Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday. The German giants brought an advantage to the game after edging the Parisians 1-0 three weeks ago.
PSG entered the massive match without superstar Neymar. The Brazilian suffered an ankle injury last month in a Ligue 1 fixture against Lille. While the extent of the setback wasn’t initially known, PSG announced earlier this week that their star forward would need season-ending surgery.
The match on Wednesday started a bit shaky. Neither team could really mount much of an attack in the opening 20 minutes or so. In fact, the first shot of the game came in the 16th minute. Leon Goretzka had a decent chance at goal, but put his shot directly at Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Match opens up after a slow start
While the first half ended goalless, the game did eventually open up. Lionel Messi, Jamal Musiala and Vitinha all had good chances to put their teams ahead in the opening period. Messi first had two shots in consecutive seconds saved by goalkeeper Yann Sommer. Musiala then drove by Danilo and put a powerful shot on goal to sting the hands of Donnarumma.
However, Vitinha had the best chance of the first half to score a goal. Sommer made a mistake and left his net wide open in the 39th minute. Vitinha looked certain to score when the ball fell directly to his feet inside the Bayern box. Nevertheless, Matthijs de Ligt made a goal-saving clearance right on the line.
Bayern put the ball into the back of the net early in the second half. It would not count though. Eric Choupo-Moting scored the chalked-off goal with a glancing header. Thomas Müller was, however, offside and made an attempt to touch the ball before it went into the net. VAR took a further look at the incident and agreed that the goal should be disallowed.
Persistence pays off for Bayern against PSG
Choupo-Moting would eventually put the hosts ahead in the 61st minute. Muller nicked the ball off of Marco Verratti inside PSG’s box then found a wide open Goretzka. The German midfielder squared a simple pass to the striker, who scored the easy goal. Verratti wasn’t happy that a foul wasn’t called on the play, but replays showed that Muller won the ball fairly.
Second half substitute Serge Gnabry would put the game to bed in the 89th minute. The lethal counter attack started with a tackle by Joshua Kimmich and was finished off by the German international. Despite falling as he struck the ball, Gnabry beat Donnarumma at the far post with a perfectly placed shot. Fellow sub Joao Cancelo provided the assist for this teammate.
The victory means that PSG are still searching for their first ever Champions League trophy. Bayern, on the other hand, put their name into the hat for the quarterfinals.
PHOTO: IMAGO / Matthias Koch