After six matches so drained of public by the covid-19 as full of football nuances, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain will play this Sunday the great European title at the Da Luz stadium in Lisbon (9:00 p.m., Movistar Champions League). The most unprecedented European Cup in history, the first without fans in the stands, has brought two clubs with different skin to face. On one side, Bayern, with their five crowns and their old warrior scars etched in many battles won and lost on great European nights. Those three consecutive European Cups (74, 75, 76) of the Maier, Beckenbauer, Müller and Höness that overthrew the also triple reign of Cruyff's Ajax. The tough defeats immortalized by Madjer's high heel (Porto, 2-1); the opportunism of Sheringham and Solskjaer (Manchester United, 2-1) in the discount of that dramatic Camp Nou final (1999); or the tragedy of the lost penalty shootout against Chelsea (1-1) under one of the goals of their own stadium (2015). The reconquest (2001) after another penalty shoot-out against Valencia (1-1) with the ogre Kahn at the gloves, and the last wound with Jupp Heynckes (2013) in command, against Klopp and Lewandowski's Dortmund (2-1 ), and Robben and Ribery as stars of a team from which Neuer, Alaba, Boateng, Müller and Javi Martínez still survive.
Facing Bayern's solera, Paris Saint Germain, founded in 1970, is facing its first Champions League final. It is presented with a Recopa (1996) in its showcases and the artificial airs already given off by other attempts by the Parisian metropolis to install a club among the elite of European football. Before this PSG relaunched by the opulence of the Qatari kingdom, there was Racing Matra de Paris in the mid-eighties. A failed project under the patronage of the company dedicated to aeronautics and the manufacture of missiles that amassed a cast of national and international stars (Francescoli, Littbarski, Luis Fernández, Bossis) who won nothing.
The millionaire injections of the Qatari regime allowed PSG in 2017 to contract the overflow and the goals of Neymar Junior and Kylian Mbappé at a stroke, although the transfer of the latter was accounted for the first year as a transfer. Two blows that broke the market and that since then hung the poster of a serious contender for the title. Despite the fact that the two operations involved an outlay of about 400 million euros, added to other millionaire hires from previous courses (Pastore, Di María, Cavani), PSG haggled the expulsion from European competitions for a possible breach of economic control from UEFA. The process on the alleged financial doping of the Parisian club, with the opening of the file, filing, reopening and again filing; the latter under the obscurantism of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) of Lausanne, was highly questioned in the lies of international sports law.
Documents revealed by The New York Times questioned whether UEFA, chaired by the Slovenian Alexander Ceferin, did everything possible to sanction PSG, run by Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who is also a member of the Executive Committee of the football governing body. European.
The Franco-German duel also contains the confrontation between two Teutonic coaches. At Bayern, Hansi Flick, a secondary footballer of the house who jumped to the bench of the German champion after the dismissal of Niko Kovac last December. In just six months, the serene Flick has transformed a desolate team into a wild group in pressure and in the rival area. This Bayern, which averages more than three goals per game, goes and goes until the fury. Barcelona can attest to this. Flick keeps the old guard that conquered the last title, but has given flight and unleash the legs and the deployment of the Davies, Perisic, Goretzka and Gnabry to feed the eternal instinct of Lewandowski.
At PSG, Thomas Tuchel represents the innovative German school. This season he has partly renounced a more elaborate football to enhance speed and overflow with spaces from Neymar and Mbappé. The latter makes Flick think about the possibility of removing the intelligent Kimmich from the right back to hand him over to Pavard, with more defensive virtues, and dispense with Thiago Alcántara.
Tuchel's big question is whether to gamble with the limping Keylor Navas or keep Sergio Rico's bet to try to reach a title that would mean the triumph of the new order.