Champions League semis well poised after first-leg madness
Bayern Munich's Harry Kane scored a penalty in the Champions League semi-final first-leg win over PSG that ended 5-4 to the latter.
On Tuesday Night in Paris, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich produced one of the all-time classic Champions League spectacles, which felt like a one-off game rather than a cagey first-leg semi-final, as PSG won 5-4. Both sides were fully committed to attacking football, relentless pressing, and proving to each other they were the better side. It was the first time in a European semi-final that both teams scored four or more goals, which proves how attacking and exciting a game of football it was.
The pace of the game was like something that I haven’t seen in a long time. Both sides looked threatening on the break, and the end-to-end nature of the game added to the spectacle.
Of course, you can find criticisms of the game, with both teams happy to leave their defenders 2vs2 throughout the game, but it was a night when all the attacking players outplayed their defensive opponents. When PSG went 5-2 up, they should have killed the tie off by shutting up shop and taking a three-goal lead to Munich this week but that doesn’t seem to be in their DNA, and they kept going for more goals only to be picked off by Bayern.
Before a ball was kicked in both semi-finals, everyone looked at the PSG vs Bayern game like it was a final. The two best teams, who play the best football, are left in the competition. Attacking football at its finest, which is what the majority of people want to watch when they tune in or go to games, and that is exactly what the first game turned out to be. Everyone was excited to tune in, and we were treated to one of the greatest ties of all time.
If we were all excited to watch attacking football in PSG vs Bayern, the opposite was true in the second semi-final, as Arsenal faced off against Atletico Madrid in Madrid. Atletico have been one of the most consistent European sides in the last ten years. Under Diego Simeone, they have consistently punched above their weight against the top European sides, but their style of play is very different to that of PSG and Bayern. They defend as if their lives depend on it (which they are excellent at), and they catch teams on the break.
Combine that style with an Arsenal team that, in recent months, has been faltering and has turned a season where they were looking like they could win at least three trophies into one where, if they get one trophy now, they will be happy and perhaps lucky. This Arsenal side has depended on its defensive strength and set-pieces to dominate sides and win games, and to their credit, they have been excellent at it.
It was no shock that the first-leg tie between Arsenal and Atletico Madrid was a 1-1, cagey affair, with both goals coming from the penalty spot. It was like a chess match played under the floodlights, measured, slow, and cautious, a very different spectacle from the one played twenty-four hours earlier in Paris.
Heading into the second legs, you can expect more of the same from both games. Neither Arsenal nor Atletico will deviate from their styles or plans to try and catch the opposition out, and in games like this, Diego Simeone has been a master of getting his side to frustrate the opposition and come away with the win. They will do whatever it takes to get that win too. They have excellent attacking players such as Antoine Griezmann and Julian Alvarez who are willing to put their own beliefs and styles of play to one side and to do what is best for the team to be successful. When a manager can get players to buy into everything, he wants them to do that, which is half the battle, and they will always have the quality on the ball to hurt teams when they get the chance to attack.
The game is in the Emirates, and on paper, you would expect Arsenal to win, but after their performances in the last two months, I’m not too sure if they can stand up and be counted. If Atletico were to score first, the crowd could easily turn on the home side, and the longer the game continues in that way, the more frustrated they will get, and that will feed onto the pitch. In contrast, Wednesday’s second-leg tie in Munich will hopefully be another classic, and I’m sure many people will make sure they are free to watch the game so they don’t miss out. Both sides will go on the attack and try to just win the game. It won’t be a cagey affair as it is not in either side’s DNA to sit back and let the opposition have the ball.
We should have been looking at PSG in the final already after the first hour of the game, but Munich’s performance in the last half hour has given them a real chance of overturning the one-goal deficit to reach the final themselves. I still think PSG will score over there so Munich will need to be clinical to get through the tie.
Head on the block, I think we will be looking at a PSG vs Atletico final in Budapest at the end of this month, but equally, with how the games are poised, it could easily be the opposite. Either way, we are in for another two nights of contrasting games with some brilliant attacking football on display in one game and a cagey game with the possibility of some dark arts in the other.
