Sometimes you get two teams with great players, both teams full of confidence that they are the best, they are on a roll in their leagues, and have offensive style based on their confidence. And suddenly they are playing an important match (let us say a semifinal) where they can display all their skills and style.
Then you get an extraordinary match, and that is what happened today in the CL first leg semifinal between PSG and Bayern Munich.
Do not mistake me; it was not perfect in the sense that there were mistakes (including by the referee when awarding a penalty kick for handball), poor defending, and the occasional technical mistake, but frankly these are parts of a match that had it all.
I was working, listening on the radio, but by the score 2-1 for PSG I shifted to the TV; Harry Kane had brought the visitors ahead 0-1 on a penalty kick, but shortly after Kvisha Kvarashkelia scored his first of two great goals where he showed his fantastic skills, and a bit later Joao Neves brought the Parisians ahead. The great Frenchman playing for the German side, Michael Olise, ran through the PSG central defense to make it 2-2 before Ousmane Dembele made it 3-2 on a handball call that in my view was not a penalty.
3-2 at halftime, the match had already been extraordinary (it could have been 5-5), but it was PSG who came out with a high and steady pressure on Bayern Munich’s shaky defense, with Kvarashkelia scoring his second and Ousmane Dembele making it 5-2 on a quick counterattack: it appeared at this point that the Germans were defeated, but truly, if we know anything it is that Bayern is never defeated.
Another Frenchman, Dayot Upamecano made it 5-3 on a header and poor defending, and suddenly it was Bayern Munich who was pressuring a PSG side that pulled back but was still a deadly menace on counterattack. It was the Colombian Luis Diaz who made it 5-4 winning a thrilling 1 on 1 duel with Marquinhos.
The match could easily have had more goals, but you could also sense the tiredness in all these footballing heroes at the end of the match, which ended with a French 5-4 victory, and the most goals scored in a single semifinal match in the CL ever.
This was perhaps the best match we will see this decade (if not century), and surely the best match of the year.
Forget the World Cup.
Next week is the second leg in Munich, but considering what we saw today, anything can happen, and I just look forward to seeing these two great sides, whom I thank from the bottom of my footballing heart for today.
