FanSided World Football
·26 November 2024
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Yahoo sportsFanSided World Football
·26 November 2024
On Tuesday evening, Bayern Munich hosted defending French champions Paris Saint Germain, for match day five of their 24/25 UEFA Champions League campaign.
For the task at hand, Vincent Kompany went for an XI of; Neuer – Laimer, Upamecano, Kim, Davies – Goretzka, Kimmich – Sané, Musiala, Coman – Kane.
After just seven minutes, Bayern could have taken the lead, but Musiala’s one on one was too central, and batted away by the goalkeeper. They were nearly punished straight away, but Ousmane Dembele couldn’t convert when well placed.
We had to wait 20 minutes for the next real opportunity of note, as Coman managed to weave away from three PSG players, but could only fire wide with his left footed attempt.
Just a minute later, PSG worked an opportunity well, finding Warren Zaire-Emery on the far side, but he dragged his effort wide. Definitely a let off for Kompany’s side.
We had played just over half an hour where Dembele managed to get a left footed shot off, which was saved by Neuer. Bayern needed to wake up.
That they did. From a corner, PSG could not get the ball clear, and Kim was there to head home. Element of fortune with the defending and goalkeeping, and how the corner came from a previous terrible corner being poorly cleared, but no complaints.
It was nearly 2-0 very soon after, but Coman’s lob on the bounce hit the roof of the net, genuinely a bit unlucky — would have been a very good goal.
With the last action of the first period, Kane found Sané inside the box, who forced a save with a right footed effort. Bayern would go into the break with a 1-0 lead.
Ten minutes into the second half, Dembele was sent off for a second yellow card, after a foul on Davies. Even then, Bayern were quite frustrated, as the ref brought the play back when they were on the break.
Around midway through the second half, Neuer got on the ball near the centre circle, and sprayed a ball out to Sané, with the opportunity eventually falling to Coman, who struck over the bar.
With just under twenty minutes remaining, Olise and Gnabry replaced Coman and Sané in two like for like changes from Kompany. Olise nearly scored immediately after coming on, having been found by Musiala, but the ball would not settle and he could not make a proper connection.
Not long after, the ball opened up for Musiala, but his effort was tipped onto the post. A few minutes later, he was replaced by Müller.
With two minutes of normal time remaining, a stretching Gnabry could not convert a Müller cross. It would matter little, as Bayern would hold on for an absolutely crucial three points, courtesy of Kim's header not long before the half time interval.
This result leaves Bayern in 11th place in the league phase — just one point off the top eight spots — with all three remaining games against sides outside of Europe’s top five leagues. Not only does this win propel them closer to a top eight finish, it basically rules PSG, no doubt a side that would have been expected to finish there, pretty much out of contention to do so.
This was not the easiest game on the eye, but it doesn't matter. You can be sure neutrals enjoyed the Barcelona defeat more than this game, and we know what happened there. Three points was the objective, and three points was the outcome. Seven clean sheets in a row. Three big games in eight days - one down, two to go.