The dream that crossed a club, a city and a few million French people evaporated in the Lisbon night. PSG will not be European champions in 2020, which does not prevent us from trying again very quickly. He has nothing to envy to anyone, has risen to the height of the event but has fallen on a nightmare, a Manuel Neuer still at the top. Among others.
Bayern was undoubtedly stronger collectively even if the balance of power often seemed balanced, especially in the middle. Bayern has especially put its chances, the great sin which punished Paris. Neymar will have been brilliant all the month of August and he will not have marked in Portugal, like a snag in the decor, an irreversible anomaly. Kylian Mbappé either, yet author of several face-to-face meetings that he could have better negotiated, given the power that usually squirts from his feet. Even in extra time, Choupo-Moting could not repeat the magic of Bergamo (90th + 2), failing with a toe.
Paris lost by a goal, came home empty-handed but seemed so close to the Grail. And, this Sunday evening, in the improbable closed-door of the Luz stadium where for the first time "Go Paris!" “Were rising in the sky, he was able to look the German champion in the eyes, now with a 6th Champions League, this event which does not accept new entrants so easily.
A first final is rarely won
It is even the opposite, it is a select club from which the Parisian training is always excluded. It seems that a first final is rarely won, that you have to pay to see. It's clear, now, Paris can hope to return one day to look for what has been hidden from it for so long. It will take a pact between players for that and apply it this time to the end.
PSG did not survive their promising first period. After the break, he lost track of his high pressing, his counter-scoring opportunities and the depth he constantly sought with Neymar and Mbappé. Unless it was Bayern Munich who accelerated like a steamroller with a total control over the game.
The Parisian specialty then occurred with the opening of the scoring by a former club (59th), Kingsley Coman, a child of the training which is more, in an additional cruelty. Even if it means hurting, Munich decided to press with all its might on old injuries. A few minutes after the Frenchman's goal, Thiago Silva will save in front of his line, like a signal of a high tide in the process of burying a stoned Paris.
Every Parisian striker hit the Neuer wall
The fight and the intensity had punctuated a very clear first period tactically: in Bayern the possession and in Paris the blocks thanks to a high recovery of the ball, with multiple goal situations for Mbappé, Neymar or Di Maria. Each Parisian striker ran into the Neuer wall or his lack of aggressiveness in front of goal.
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But this highlight will have drawn all the possible flaws in the defense of Munich, mainly on the sides. These 45 minutes have shown a duel of goalkeepers from a distance, with some rescues from Navas in particular on a header from Lewandowski, who had also found his outgoing post (22nd) on a pivot shot. When the posts are round, Bayern takes longer to score even if he always ends up scoring. This is the problem this Sunday evening.