Why the new Champions League suits surprise rivals PSG and Bayern Munich | OneFootball

For the clubs accused of reducing their domestic divisions to one-team leagues, a 36-team table comes with certain similarities for one; perhaps soon for the other.

They are used to looking down the standings to see anyone else and, as one of five teams with a 100 percent record, Paris Saint-Germain top the Champions League charts. Bayern Munich – another with three wins from three so far – are second in the standings; win at the Parc des Princes and, goal difference permitting, they will reach the summit.

It could indicate the difference a year has made; Bayern lost two of their first three Champions League games during the 2024-25 campaign, plunging them towards a play-off round in which Celtic gave them a genuine scare, while PSG only took four points from their opening five, leaving them at risk of not even finishing in the top 24. The supposed superpowers have begun this league phase with greater statements of intent.

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PSG are currently top of the Champions League table (AFP via Getty Images)

The bloated league table can also assume a different significance. There is a theory that this is Uefa’s version of a European Super League by another name. Arguably if any clubs had a footballing need for one, it is these two, who can seem insufficiently tested by rivals in their homelands who lack their resources. Bayern have now won 12 of the last 13 Bundesliga titles, PSG 11 of the last 13 in Ligue 1.

Yet they were the two most prominent conscientious objectors, refusing to join the treacherous breakaway. The German fan and footballing culture kept Bayern out; PSG’s Nasser Al-Khelaifi used his status as a Uefa loyalist to become chair of the European Club Association.

Perhaps an expanded Champions League suited each, though. PSG faced four Premier League sides in Europe last season, a fifth in the Club World Cup, and meet two more in their next five Champions League games. Bayern are starting to get annual dates with Arsenal and PSG, even if they predate a shift in format. This is a 10th meeting in just over eight years – the German champions leading 6-3 so far – and Bayern won a league-phase game in Bavaria last November, PSG a Club World Cup quarter-final in Atlanta in July.

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Bayern beat PSG in the 2020 Champions League final thanks to Kingsley Coman’s goal (Getty Images)

The most significant was the 2020 final, Bayern’s sixth European Cup meaning Paris Saint-Germain’s wait for a first extended for another five years. That the only goal came from a Parisian was an indictment of a club based in perhaps the greatest home of footballing talent, but who often overlooked it to import superstars. There was an understandable temptation to brand Bayern’s French match-winner Kingsley Coman as ‘Coman the Bavarian’. But a lesson was learned: when PSG did conquer Europe, it was with a more French feel.

There is another pertinence to Bayern’s 2020 triumph. Arguably the most dominant champions of Europe, but in very different ways, in the last decade have been Bayern and PSG: Hansi Flick’s side because they won all 14 Champions League games that season, some by remarkable margins, such as 7-2 against Tottenham and 8-2 against Barcelona; Luis Enrique’s team because of their record final victory, the 5-0 evisceration of Inter Milan.

Each did the treble (as, Manchester City may point out, they did in 2022-23 as well). Unlike City, though, each won their domestic league by huge margins: 13 points for Bayern, 19 for PSG. There is an enduring question if that level of superiority is beneficial, enabling runaway leaders to concentrate more on the Champions League, or detrimental, depriving them of enough meaningful tests.

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PSG won the Champions League for the first time last season, beating Inter 5-0 in the final (Getty)

What can be said is that both Bayern and PSG’s Champions League wins brought predictions that they would lead to an era of dominance; they are commonplace and the fact that only Real Madrid have retained the title in 35 years show both they are misplaced and how tough it is.

Bayern have not returned to the final since, making a solitary semi-final, even if, in 2024, they were agonisingly close to beating Real Madrid. PSG actually ended Bayern’s defence of their crown in 2021. The French club nevertheless regressed further after their 2020 final appearance, going out in the last 16 in two of their subsequent three attempts, one of them to Bayern.

A transformative summer followed: out went Lionel Messi and Neymar, in came Enrique. Bayern have circled through different strategies, from the wunderkind of German management, in Julian Nagelsmann, to the man who took PSG to the 2020 final in Thomas Tuchel.

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Vincent Kompany and Luis Enrique will meet once again this week (Getty Images)

If there is a comparison between Vincent Kompany and Enrique, it lies in the Pep Guardiola connection: the PSG manager was a Barcelona teammate of Guardiola, while his Bayern counterpart was the Catalan’s City captain.

PSG have bought younger and dispensed with specialist strikers, instead reinventing Ousmane Dembele. Bayern’s forward line has been constructed with Premier League experience, and based around a 32-year-old Harry Kane; but then, they may note, the similarly prolific Robert Lewandowski turned 32 soon after that 2020 triumph.

Thus far, PSG’s has been the winning way, whereas Bayern, with their German core, offered an example to follow five years ago. For each, the Champions League may matter more because of the expectation they can pocket other trophies. But each can testify to the difficulties of winning it.