Bayern as the clear favorite and winning attitude of PSG

The current Champions League season will forever go down in history as the longest. The drawing of the main European Cup started on June 25 last year, and finished a year and almost two months later - on August 23. 

At the same time, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the decisive stages of the playoffs were held in a truncated format in the form of the so-called Final Eight. 

However, the non-standard nature of the tournament did not make the victory in it less significant. And who made it to the final, Bayern Munich with PSG intended to do everything to win the long-awaited trophy. 

Many considered the Munich players to be the favorite of the decisive confrontation, who won all ten Champions League matches and scored 42 goals in them. The defeat of Barcelona with a score of 8: 2 in the Champions League quarterfinals will forever remain in history.

In addition, the German team has extensive experience of participating in the decisive matches of European competition. For him, this European Cup / Champions Cup final was 11th, while for PSG it was the first.

However, the head coach of the Parisians, Thomas Tuchel, noted that the team has enough players who have won this trophy, for example, Neymar and Keylor Navas. In turn, his German counterpart Hans-Dieter Flick reminded before the game that PSG conceded only five goals in the current Champions League season.

“This means that their defense works as well as the attack. We have a plan for the game, and I hope that we will be able to fulfill it, ”the UEFA official website quoted the specialist as saying.

At the same time, both coaches got along with almost no losses. Navas, who recovered from an injury, returned to the starting lineup of PSG, and the Bayern doctors did everything to ensure that the center defender Jerome Boateng entered the field from the first minutes.

Thus, Tuchel, as expected, bet on the 4-3-3 formation and released the same players who played in the semifinals with Leipzig. The trio Neymar - Kilian Mbappe - Angel Di Maria looked especially formidable in the attack.

The flick cost one castling. Place Ivan Perisic on the left flank was taken by Kingsley Coman. Otherwise, Bayern at the start also did not dare to present the opponent with surprises, and all the strongest entered the field except for the long-injured right-back Benjamin Pavar. 

Missed chances by Neymar and Lewandowski and missed penalty

The match began with active pressure from Bayern Munich. In the first ten minutes, PSG players did not even manage to meet the ball. The Munich players immediately turned on high pressure and forced their opponents to literally fight back. 

However, from this segment, the German team extracted only an inaccurate shot by Thiago Alcantara from outside the penalty area.

Tuchel's charges quickly came to their senses and seized the initiative. The ball finally began to reach Neymar, Mbappe and Di Maria, which they instantly took advantage of. Kilian delivered a couple of strong blows from outside the penalty area, but they were blocked at the last moment by the defenders.

In the 18th minute, the Parisians created the first truly dangerous moment. Neymar, after a perfect pass to Mbappe, ran away one on one with Manuel Neuer, but failed to outplay him. The Brazilian seemed to have tricked the goalkeeper by sending the ball between his legs, but the goalkeeper managed to parry the shot with his hand at the last moment. 

Bayern responded by hitting Lewandowski's post. Robert, in the area of ​​someone else's penalty mark, handled the ball after not the most convenient pass from his partner and shot into the far corner, but the goal post saved the opponent.

Thus, a double-edged game went on the field without a center of the field. Immediately Di Maria struck just above the far nine from the right corner of the penalty area after Ander Herrera's tricky discount from a non-working right foot.

During this attack, Boateng aggravated the damage. Already in the middle of the first half, Flick had to change the main central defender to Niklas Süle. A similar castling was made during the break in the semifinal meeting with Lyon.

Meanwhile, Lewandowski missed another moment after an hour of play. After serving from the right, he opened between the two central defenders, hit his head on goal from several meters, but the ball flew straight into Navas.

And in the time added by the referee, the Munich team claimed a penalty. Coman burst into the penalty area on the left flank, and Tilo Kerer, who missed him, dropped the opponent onto the lawn. However, the Italian judge Daniele Orsato did not point out the "dot", and the assistants at the VAR supported him. 

Gnabry's rudeness and Shupo-Moting's incredible ending

The second half of the meeting began with a couple of skirmishes in the center of the field. Serge Gnabry kicked Neymar in the legs twice, which led to a serious conflict. For the last foul the German received a yellow card, but Leandro Paredes, who grabbed his opponent by the collar, was not left without a yellow card.

The incident knocked PSG players out of the right mood. Neymar and Mbappe completely disappeared into the shadows. "Bayern" finally took the ball under their control, and the Parisians have ceased to pass even the semblance of counterattacks.

In the end, the Munich pressure did lead to a goal. Jozua Kimmich from the penalty line performed a soft ideal serve to the far corner of the goalkeeper's, from where Coman, who came running, sent the ball into the far corner with his head. At the same time, Kerer in this situation was left with two opponents at once. Besides Kingsley, he had to keep Lewandowski.

Koman managed to hit the gate of his own team. The midfielder is a pupil of PSG and made his first steps in professional football here. However, the Parisians did not need a technical winger and in 2014 he moved to Juvenuts as a free agent. Six years later, Kingsley managed to upset PSG in the Champions League final. And Flick's decision to release him instead of Perisic fully justified itself.

To change the course of the game, Tuchel replaced the tired Paredes with Marco Verratti, barely recovering from injury. Flick responded with a double castling. The coach refreshed the attacking flanks by releasing Perisic and Philippe Coutinho.

PSG still managed to transfer the ball to someone else's half of the field at some point. And 20 minutes before the end of regular time, the Parisians missed an excellent moment to level the score. After Di Maria's pass, Marquinhos shot from the right corner of the goalkeeper into the far corner, but Neuer parried the shot with his heel.

A little later, Kimmich in his own penalty kicked Mbappe on the leg, but Orsato did not assign a penalty in this episode either.   

In the end, Bayern managed to push the game away from their own goal. The Munich team tried their last bit to put pressure on the opponent's half of the field in order not to allow the opponent to bring the matter to a blow.

Tuchel threw Lavin Kurzawa and Eric Shupo-Moting into battle. And in the last minutes, the Cameroonian, who scored the winning goal against Atalanta, almost saved PSG from defeat. After a lumbago from the flank and a not too successful blow by Neymar, the attacker could send the ball on target from close range, but did not really hit it. At that moment Tuchel, who suffered a fracture of the fifth metatarsal bone in early August, threw the crutches aside.

Thus, the prediction of the majority of football fans came true, and Bayern still won the Champions League final, although it had to put a lot of effort into it. For the sixth time in history, the Munich team won the main European Cup, and also repeated Barcelona's record for the number of goals scored in a single Champions League draw (43).

Lewandowski only interrupted his ten-match streak in the decisive meeting, but became the top scorer of the tournament with 15 goals. 

PSG, on the other hand, can be proud of the first hit in the final. The Parisians made a worthy competitor to the favorite, but did not realize their chances, while the German team still managed to break Navas once.