'More to come' from Bayern Munich in UEFA Champions League despite 5-4 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain
Under ordinary circumstances, losing the first leg of a UEFA Champions League semi-final would not offer much cause for optimism - but Bayern Munich’s 5-4 defeat at Paris Saint-Germain was no ordinary game.
The highest-scoring last-four tie in the competition since Eintracht Frankfurt defeated Rangers 6-3 back in 1960, Tuesday’s breathless, end-to-end encounter will have had football fans the world over glued to their screens. It had everything, from wonderfully crafted team goals to stunning solo strikes.
Crucially, four of those went to the away side as Bayern left themselves with more than a fighting chance of a first final appearance since 2020 - not to mention a glorious treble of Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Champions League.
“The belief is 100 percent there,” head coach Vincent Kompany said afterwards. “We need our fans and their support, with the same passion we had against Real Madrid [in the quarter-finals].
“Obviously, when you concede five goals away from home, the semi-final is normally over, but we scored four and could have scored one, two, even three more.
The Bayern boss could have been referring to the first half alone. Michael Olise - scorer of Bayern’s second goal - was denied in a one-on-one with Matvei Safonov not long after Harry Kane’s first-half opener from the penalty spot, while the winger also had a cross deflected onto the post by PSG captain Marquinhos.
However, efforts at the other end from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, João Neves and Ousmane Dembélé gave the reigning European champions a 3-2 half-time lead, before Kvaratskhelia and Dembélé bagged their second goals of the game early in the second half to leave the visitors with a mountain to climb.
Many teams would have crumbled at that stage, but not Bayern. Back came the Bundesliga champions, who netted their third of the evening through Dayot Upamecano’s glancing header before Luis Díaz reduced the arrears even further with another superb strike - from a sensational Kane pass - midway through the second period.
“It feels strange after the match because we lost - by one goal,” reflected Joshua Kimmich. “We were three goals down at one point, came back and felt that we actually should have equalised. Overall, you have the feeling there’s more to come.”
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Jonathan Tah echoed Kimmich’s sentiments, saying: “I think we showed in a lot of phases what kind of team we are. We’ve handles setbacks well because we don’t let things like that stop us - we just keep going.”
“In the end, it’s only a one-goal margin. We’ll go into the return leg full of confidence, give it everything and try and reach the final.”
Díaz’s cool finish not only left the tie on a knife-edge, it also lifted the Colombian, Kane and Olise onto a whooping 100 goals between them in all competitions this season. With a minimum of five games still to come, that eye-watering tally could rise even further before the 2025/26 season draws to a close.
Bayern, of course, are determined to ensure a memorable campaign does not end with the DFB Cup final on 23 May, but with the Champions League final in Budapest a week later. Having plundered 171 goals in all competitions this term, overturning a mere one-goal deficit is well within their compass.
“Four goals in Paris shows we can score goals,” added Kompany. “We’ll show that again at home.
“We have a week now to work on the things we need to improve. The belief is certainly there.”
