It was the night where every football fan looked forward to, when the UEFA Champions League finally resumed after months of waiting for its knockout round to take place. The biggest tie of all eight two-legged fixtures in this Round of 16 is of course the clash between French Ligue 1 giant Paris Saint-Germain and German Bundesliga 1 sensation Bayern Munich. The German outfit came into the match trailing one game behind its French counterpart in terms of overall head-to-head record, and managed to rewrite the history book by securing only a second win over the home side at Le Parc des Princes, courtesy of former PSG man Kingsley Coman’s goal.
Coman Scored Against His Former Club
Christophe Galtier’s men were undergoing a two-game losing streak prior to the Bayern Munich game at home, largely due to the absence of their star man and leading goal scorer Kylian Mbappé; The Frenchman was expected to miss three weeks of actions due to a thigh injury but was included in PSG’s bench for the match and came on as a substitute four minutes after Coman opened the score line.
Both teams had their chances in the initial 45 minutes to draw first blood, but efforts were not sufficient to beat past opposing goalkeepers. The deadlock finally be broken by Julian Nagelsmann’s Bayern Munich in the 53rd minute, when Alphonso Davies, who replaced João Cancelo few minutes earlier, delivered a tempting cross to find Coman in the penalty box. The 26-year-old winger then hit a first-time shot to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma with pace but was later seen not celebrating the goal out of respect to his boyhood club Paris Saint-Germain.
Mbappé Could Not Level the Score, Third Straight Loss for PSG
Galtier quickly shifted things up by bringing on the 24-year-old Paris-born forward Mbappé, and the replacement’s presence altered the dynamics of PSG’s tactics almost instantly. He had multiple efforts that ended in the back of the net but they were unfortunately ruled offside, including a 74th-minute one-on-one opportunity against Yann Sommer as well as another close-range effort eight minutes later. The inability to draw level with Bayern Munich meant the German powerhouse has now won the last two meetings against Paris Saint-Germain and will be taking a 1-0 home to play the second leg at the Allianz Arena.
Furthermore, the defeat prolonged PSG’s slump to three consecutive defeats in all competitions; They had previously lost to Olympique de Marseille in the Coupe de France, before succumbing to Mbappé’s former club Monaco at Stade Louis-II three days later. The current leader of the French Ligue 1 will have three more leagues games to attend to, before heading to Germany to face Bayern Munich again for the second leg of this last 16 fixture.
PSG have lost three games in a row 😳
— GOAL News (@GoalNews) February 14, 2023
Nagelsmann Expected More from PSG
Bayern Munich’s 35-year-old manager Julian Nagelsmann admitted that he was preparing for better offence from his opponent last night, highlighting that “We played a really good game in the first 25 minutes, had very good control. We can play even more direct towards the goal. You had the feeling that we were very surprised that we had the ball so much and Paris wanted to do relatively little. I knew they always defend deep, but the fact that they’re so passive and so very deep and not really designed to win the ball surprised me a bit.” As for the only scorer of the night, Coman expressed his respect towards his birth city Paris and his childhood club Paris Saint-Germain, adding that he is satisfied with the team’s performance and the victory.
The victory over Paris Saint-Germain meant Bayern Munich maintains its 100% winning record in the 2022/2023 UEFA Champions League with seven wins in as many games, scoring a whooping 19 goals and conceding only two during the process. The 32-time German champion will return to the Bundesliga 1 to play three leagues game like their French opponent last night, before diving their focus back to the European club football competition.
Elsewhere in another Champions League Round of 16 fixture, Italian Serie A’s AC Milan defeated Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur with the same score line as this fixture, with Brahim Díaz’s early strike in the game separating both sides at the moment.
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