Bayern Munich - PSG: Bayern Munich won its sixth UEFA Champions League Final with an edgy 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in Lisbon, Portugal on Sunday.
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Hansi Flick’s Bayern finishes the season unbeaten in 30 matches on the strength of a second-half goal from French winger Kingsley Coman.
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PSG fails at the final step after Thomas Tuchel led the side to its first Champions League Final.
Notable statistics
- Bayern won all 11 of its Champions League matches this season. Even truncated, it’s incredibly impressive.
- Bayern rejoins Liverpool with the third-most European Cups in history. Their 11 finals are the same as AC Milan, joint-second behind Real Madrid’s 16.
- France’s wait for a European Cup winner extends to 28 years. Marseille beat AC Milan 1-0 in 1993. Oddly enough that happened in Munich.
- The 2021 UCL Final is set for May 28 at Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.
Man of the Match
- Neuer was wonderful, his three saves all coming from inside the box and a fourth denied by an offside call to Mbappe. He passed at 85 percent and completed seven of 11 long balls.
PSG - Bayern Munich, UEFA Champions League Final recap
Bayern pressed hard and heavy to start the match, looking very much like the machine that clobbered Barcelona in the quarterfinal. Thiago Alcantara blazed the first proper shot way over the goal and wide.
PSG found some footing after eight minutes, Neymar sending a long free kick over the fray before Thilo Kehrer won a corner kick. Played short, Bayern dealt with it.
Kylian Mbappe soon made his first impact on the game, a hard shot blocked after a PSG cutback. Paredes found Mbappe for another chance in the 15th, blocked again.
Neymar nearly beat Manuel Neuer, who got just enough of the Brazilian’s 18th-minute rip and then blocked the ensuing pass back into the mix.
Alphonso Davies then spotted Robert Lewandowski, who turned and beat Keylor Navas but not the left post. It stayed 0-0 in the 22nd.
Neymar then led a break that Di Maria ripped over Neuer and the bar.
Jerome Boateng then had to depart the game through injury for Niclas Sule. Davies then took a yellow card for grabbing Kehrer.
Ander Herrera smashed a loose ball just wide off the ensuing free kick, a wicked deflection off a Bayern player wrongly moving to a goal kick.
Lewandowski forced a close-range save out of Navas after a remarkable header of a deflected cross before the half-hour mark.
An awful giveaway from David Alaba led to interplay between Mbappe and Herrera that the striker hit directly to Neuer. Navas scooped a low rip through the PSG box moments later.
A stoppage-time flash point bailed out PSG after Kehrer’s arm on Kingsley Coman led to a spill near the six.
LISBON, PORTUGAL - AUGUST 23: Kingsley Coman of FC Bayern Munich is brought down by Thilo Kehrer of Paris Saint-Germain, in an incident that was then taken to VAR, but no penalty was awarded during the UEFA Champions League Final match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich at Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica on August 23, 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Matt Childs/Pool via Getty Images)
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A clash between Serge Gnabry and Paredes led to a pair of yellow cards in the 52nd minute.
Bayern took the lead through a Frenchman, Coman thumping a header past Navas after Kimmich chipped a gorgeous pass from the outside of the 18 into the goal.
Thomas Tuchel pressed the Marco Verratti button in the 65th minute, taking off a very decent Paredes in the hopes of something special from the Italian.
Mbappe couldn’t flick a Di Maria cross past Neuer in the 67th, and Neuer soon denied Marquinho from close range as the match reached its final 20 minutes of scheduled time.
Mbappe wizardry nearly led to a good chance in the 74th, and he could’ve been awarded a penalty when his boot was clipped mid-dribble. No call and apparently no VAR.
Substitute forward Eric Choupo-Moting couldn’t make anything out of a point-blank but difficult chance conjured by Mbappe and Neymar on the outskirts of stoppage time.
