Lisbon (AFP)
Navas, triple winner of the Champions League, against Neuer, world champion but only once winner of the major European trophy: these two exceptional goalkeepers, both engines of their team, face each other in the final Sunday with PSG and Bayern.
- Navas: the experience asset of PSG -
In the silence of the camera that has reigned since the beginnings of PSG in the "Final 8", we hear more Keylor Navas and his encouragement in Spanish with his hoarse and powerful voice than his other teammates on the lawn!
Discreet in life, the experienced Costa Rican goalkeeper (33) turns into a barker on the pitch to galvanize his partners, as in the stunning quarter-final against Atalanta Bergamo (2-1).
Victim of a muscle injury to a thigh at the end of the match, Navas had to forfeit the semi-final against Leipzig (3-0), leaving his replacement Sergio Rico (26) to deliver a solid game.
For the final, PSG and its coach Thomas Tuchel absolutely rely on the three-time winner of the Champions League (2016, 2017, 2018) to try to win the first C1 in their history.
Because in Paris, only Angel Di Maria (2014) and Neymar (2015) have already reached the European Grail, while Bayern, founded in 1900, will play its 11th final in the European queen event.
This shows whether Navas' experience will be crucial for its partners. Especially since after the mixed passages of Salvatore Sirigu (2011-2017), Kevin Trapp (2015-2018) or Alphonse Aréola (2016-2019), PSG has long groped to find the goalkeeper supposed to allow him to cross a course in continental competition.
With his innate reflexes on the goal line and his foolproof mentality, Navas has already proven his contribution this season. Like his uppercase performance during the penalty shootout against Lyon (0-0 ap, 6-5 tab) in the final of the Coupe de la Ligue.
After taking part in a second straight training session on Friday, the goalkeeper was due to take a final test on Saturday night to see if he could hold his place. And launch his duel from a distance with Neuer, one of the keys to the final.
- Neuer: already a legend at Bayern -
"Manuel is the best goalkeeper in the world and our captain": Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, on the eve of the final, knows he can count on Neuer, who at 34 already has his place in the pantheon legendary goalkeepers, alongside Lev Yachine, Dino Zoff, Fabien Barthez, Gianluigi Buffon or Iker Casillas.
Winner of the queen competition in 2013, already with Bayern, world champion in 2014 with Germany, eight times winner of the Bundesliga, six times winner of the German Cup: the goalkeeper, trained in Schalke and arrived at 25 years in Munich, epitomizes Bayern Munich's golden decade.
He has always played a decisive role in the success of his teams. The French remember in particular the quarter-final of the 2014 World Cup (1-0 victory for Germany), where Neuer had completely disgusted the attackers of the Blues.
And if the victories of the German champion seemed easy at the Lisbon tournament in August, Neuer was there for a lot: we saw him win crucial duels at the start of the match against Barcelona and Lyon, in his very characteristic style in the split, to allow his attackers to then unfold with serenity.
Imperial on his line and impressive in his area, he has also contributed for a decade to changing the game at the foot of the goalkeepers, with his exits - sometimes risky - very far from his surface: "When it comes to being the 11th outfield player, Neuer was the gold standard, "Bodo Illgner, 1990 world champion in Germany's goals, said of him.
Four times named best goalkeeper in the world, Neuer maintains his unwavering confidence in himself, and rightly so: in the selection, Joachim Löw continues to make him his captain and unmistakable number 1, despite the impatience of Marc-André ter Stegen (Barcelona ). And at Bayern, its leaders have just renewed his contract until 2023, the year of his ... 37 years!
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