Champions League: FC Bayern Munich after the 2: 3 against Paris Saint

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Bayern's Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Kingsley Coman

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QUAY PFAFFENBACH / REUTERS

The homage to his players was exuberant.

Hansi Flick said after the game that the performance was "impressive".

And: "They fight for 90 minutes on the pitch, they never give up, that's a quality that sets our team apart." If you hadn't known the result, you could have derived a victory from these words from the Bayern coach - and not Flick's first loss in a Champions League game.

FC Bayern actually delivered perhaps the best game of this Champions League season in the quarter-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain.

He seemed almost overwhelmingly superior at times, 31: 6 shots on goal was the balance.

It was of little use.

The Munich team lost 2: 3, after more than two years and 19 unbeaten games (18 wins) it was the first defeat in the premier class.

Bayern will go to Paris for the second leg next Tuesday as outsiders.

The defending champion threatens to end in the quarter-finals.

"Nobody should have complained about these many chances if we had won 6: 3 today," said Thomas Müller: "We laid this egg in our own nest today."

What the Bavarians were praised for their efficiency on Saturday after the 1-0 win in Leipzig.

Because they got a lot out of a little.

Because that's how they are, the Bavarians.

Too bad that on Wednesday evening the guests from Paris played like Bayern did in Leipzig, at least in terms of efficiency.

Because Bayern are like that this season too: vulnerable and vulnerable.

The deficits on the defensive as the main theme have been running through the entire season, so they have been halfway bearable so far.

Somehow Bayern usually got it right again, they caught up most of the arrears, and if they didn't win, the competition often failed too.

"We lacked the killer instinct"

The three goals conceded on Wednesday, however, really hurt.

Against the Paris pace, the Munich team did not always find the right means, plus a mistake by the mostly infallible Manuel Neuer in the early 0: 1.

Bayern also lost because PSG had two exceptional strikers in their ranks - Neymar and Kylian Mbappé - and that's exactly what they missed in the absence of the injured Robert Lewandowski.

When Müller later complained about the lack of opportunities, he said: "We lacked the killer instinct today." The guests from Paris had that.

Flick replaced two of five possible players, Alphonso Davies and Jérôme Boateng in the first half for Leon Goretzka and Niklas Süle, both of whom had to leave the field.

Nobody came in the second half.

And that, although the team seemed to need an impulse from outside after the third Paris goal.

In the quarter of an hour after that, there was only one shot on goal.

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Overcome: Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in a duel with goal scorer Marquinhos

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QUAY PFAFFENBACH / REUTERS

In fact, Flick has always had a good hand with his jokers in the past.

However, this time he apparently had no one else he trusted.

After the failures of Serge Gnabry (Covid), Douglas Costa (hairline crack in the foot), Corentin Tolisso (tendon tear) and Lewandowski, the substitutes' bench was occupied by Javi Martínez, Bouna Sarr, Tanguy Nianzou and Jamal Musiala.

In comparison, there were twelve reservists on the PSG side in the lower grandstand area, with the Parisians also having to do without several key players.

In games like these, it takes revenge if not every position is equally filled, if there is a huge lack of qualitative breadth of the squad.

And of course it takes revenge if Lewandowski fails right now.

It was more evident than seldom how much FC Bayern is dependent on this one world footballer, regardless of the class of its players.

Lewandowski will definitely be out for the second leg as well.

That would come "too early," said the striker himself in the evening, so Bayern have to fix it in the second leg without their best striker.

The club also made life difficult for itself around the duels with PSG.

Before the first leg it was leaked that the contract of Jérôme Boateng, who is so valued by Flick, will not be renewed.

Before the kick-off, sports director Hasan Salihamidžić officially confirmed that the 32-year-old central defender would have to leave.

"I have to act a little, that's part of the coaching job."

It is no secret that the relationship between Flick and Salihamidžić is disrupted.

Disputes have been going on for months, especially when it comes to management planning and personnel policy.

According to Flick, they may also have spoken out three weeks ago: How broken the relationship really is was clearly shown around the 2: 3.

When asked whether the announcement of Boateng's departure shortly before such a game would cause a stir, Flick replied irritably at the press conference after the game: “I don't have to answer everything because I don't want to either.

I also have to act a little, that's part of the coaching job. "

Acting?

It sounded like Flick already had something to say to Salihamidžić, but wanted to resist it - and so bit his tongue.

Whether the coach and the sports director can really continue to work together beyond the end of the season under these conditions seems more and more questionable.

Bayern still have a chance of reaching the semi-finals, Flick was quite optimistic.

Maybe the game in Paris' Prinzenpark next Tuesday will also be Flick's very last Champions League game as Bayern coach.