Neymar against Lewandowski and Muller in the Champions League final, August 23, 2020. -
LLUIS GENE / POOL / AFP
PSG will find Bayern Munich in the quarter-final of the Champions League, according to the draw made on Friday.
The defending Germans are still the big favorites of the competition this season.
On closer inspection, however, they may not be as impregnable as they were last season.
The Bavarian steamroller here, the Lewandowski machine there… Stop.
Yes, Bayern is strong, and PSG did not inherit an easy draw this Friday for the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
But in this confrontation, revenge back and forth from the final of the last edition, the Parisians do not leave beaten in advance.
Looking closely, there are some encouraging signs, which we will be presenting to you here.
With the bit of bad faith going well, otherwise it's not funny.
Bayern is running out of steam
Since the beginning of the year 2021, the people of Munich have suffered snags that are unlike them.
It started with an unlikely elimination in the German Cup by a handball team (Holstein Kiel, seriously?), A few days after a defeat on the lawn at Monchengladbach.
Then in the heart of February, two ugly results in a row, with a 3-3 draw against Armina Bielefield and a 2-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt.
After this last setback, Hansi Flick took refuge behind the state of the lawn like the first Rudi Garcia came.
Always a bad sign when you start to look this way.
More generally, there is this feeling that the Bavarians master their subject a little less well, with a workforce on the rim.
The World Club Cup in mid-February in Qatar has left its mark, and between injuries (Goretzka, Tolisso, Gnabry, Douglas Costa) and Covid-19 (Muller, Pavard), Bayern is skating.
The fault also with a baroque transfer window, which plucked the bench.
Thiago Alcantara has not been replaced, Coutinho and Perisic, who arise there as luxury substitutes, have left.
Bouna Sarr, Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting and Marc Roca do - oddly - not quite the same services.
Result, already three defeats and four draws in the Bundesliga, where the Bavarians remain within gun range of Leipzig.
Always better than PSG and his bag of defeats that will make him lose the title in Ligue 1?
Absolutely.
But we're talking about Bayern, there.
A not so serene defense
Small remark in the preamble.
Yes, it was already said last year that the Germans were taken against and no, that did not work.
But this year, the Bavarians are less hegemonic and their defense has something to do with it.
Take Benjamin Pavard.
The French international has come down so low that Hansi Flick has come to prefer Süle to the right of the defense, that gives you the level.
Collectively, it's still the same.
Bayern's hyper-offensive style of play just leaves some boulevards on the wings.
So it can go on the corridor of Davies who runs the 100m in 3 seconds, but it's harder for the others.
Against a Mbappé on fire and a Neymar that we imagine back, that may pose a problem.
Moreover, it almost cost a lot in BuLi against Borussia Dortmund in early March.
Led 2-0, the Bavarians ended up turning things around (4-2).
But if they leave so much room for PSG, it is not said that Kyky, him, misses the ball of 3-0 against Neuer.
He already gave her enough presents in the final last season.
This time it will be at the bottom (thanks Kyky).
- Manu Fernandez / AP / SIPA
Hansi Flick's head elsewhere?
Good news, the German coach is thinking more about how he will play the national team in a few months than an anti Mbappé plan.
The interim who became head coach during last season has already won everything with Bayern (Champions League, Championship, German Cup, then European Supercup, German Supercup and Club World Cup), and according to the well-informed local press, he will not stay in Bavaria beyond next June.
Everything is going in this direction.
First, sports director Hasan Salihamidzic starts running him on the bean.
He did not comply with his requests during the last transfer window, and never refrains from letting go of a small cowardice if the heart tells him.
Like any good former-player-guarantor-of-the self-respecting Bavarian-institution, what.
“We're not always on the same page,” recently admitted Flick, who isn't the type to sit still if he feels like he's been soaping his board.
Above all, a door has opened with the announcement of the departure of national coach Joachim Low after the Euro.
Fifteen years that the German coaches waited for the place to become available ... You must not miss the train.
Officially, Flick is making the one who doesn't "care about all the things going on outside," but categorically doesn't rule out anything either.
The opportunity is too good, anyway.
And if for you, aligning Süle on the right side does not look like sabotage, we do not know what you need.
San Keylor is at PSG now
Remember, at the beginning of May 2018, the semi-final return between Bayern and Real.
Winners 2-1 on the first leg in Germany, the Madrilenians take water from everywhere on the return home.
Fortunately, Keylor Navas is there.
Two conceded, certainly (2-2 in the end), but eight decisive interventions identified, including three monumental against Lewandowski, Alaba and Tolisso.
“A finale for a hero: Keylor”, headlines
As
the next day, while
Marca
allows himself a “San Keylor”, nickname reserved for the historic monument Iker Casillas.
It gives you a perf.
And given his last performances, the Costa Rican goalkeeper does not seem against giving the cover.
A little nod to Lewandowski in the hallway before entering the lawn to remind him of the facts and the Pole will stutter for the evening.
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