The canceled goal of Mbappe and the failure of the British: how Bayern defeated PSG in the minority, and Tottenham lost to Milan in the Champions League

2020 finale remake

Paris Saint-Germain approached the most important match with Bayern in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League in a deplorable state.

The team sensationally lost in the last two meetings on the domestic arena and not only allowed the pursuers to close the gap in the Ligue 1 standings, but also completed their performance in the French Cup.

And all these failures could well be explained by the absence of key performers.

If Kylian Mbappe did not enter the field with Marseille, then the victors of the last two major national championships, Lionel Messi and Marco Verratti, could not play with Monaco.

The good news for the capital's team was that by the first match of the playoffs of the main European Cup, all three resumed training, and the Argentine and the Italian even got into the main team.

What could not be said about the Frenchman, who, although he was on the list, started the game on the bench.

But if this surprised few people, then the decision of Christophe Galtier to release Warren Zaire-Emery at the start looked extremely risky.

Back in September, the 16-year-old pupil defended the colors of Paris Saint-Germain in the Youth Champions League, after which he played 14 games for the base.

But it remained unclear whether he was ready to perform at the highest level, and even against one of the favorites of the competition.

Like PSG, Bayern have also had a rather uneven season this season.

In the absence of Robert Lewandowski, Munich no longer seemed invulnerable and often lost points even in the Bundesliga, whose champion seemed to be known in advance.

But lately, the wards of Julian Nagelsmann still managed to rectify the situation and even gave out a series of three victories in all tournaments.

And even though, in addition to the strong Wolfsburg, the modest Mainz and Bochum were defeated, this is clearly evidence of the “recovery” of the team.

Therefore, it was quite logical that it was Bayern that dominated the Parc des Princes in the first half.

Guests deprived the opponent of the ball and began to besiege his penalty area, thereby forcing them to rely solely on counterattacks.

With Mbappé on the pitch, this tactic could very well bring good luck to PSG, but in his absence, Neymar and Messi were unable to work in such a mode.

The Argentine, who was under close guardianship, could not alone drag the ball to the gates of Munich, and the Brazilian fell more often in collisions with defenders than beat them.

Sometimes this happened in violation of the rules, for which they received well-deserved punishments.

More than others "distinguished" Benjamin Pavard.

First, the Frenchman hit the opponent with his hand in the jaw, and then hit his legs hard, forcing Michael Oliver to show him a yellow card.

But despite the solid territorial superiority, it was not possible to create a truly dangerous moment at the gates of Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Basically, Bayern's attacks ended on the outskirts of the penalty area and were crowned with not the most dangerous long-range shots.

The only exception was the “shot” by Joshua Kimmich from 23 meters, which, although with difficulty, the Italian goalkeeper managed.

It was possible to crack the massive defense of the Parisians only once, but Eric Choupo-Moting, who hit his head from a distance of a couple of meters, missed the target.

"Thank you" for this is worth saying to Nun Mendes.

Although the Portuguese did not have the opportunity to win the fight on the second floor, he defended his position and made the task of the Cameroonian as difficult as possible.

As a result, after the first half, Bayern had a tenfold advantage in shots (10:1), and the only attempt of the Parisians was recorded in the first stoppage minute.

Messi himself tried to convert the earned free kick, but could not throw the wall.

And already at the beginning of the second, Paris Saint-Germain broke down under the pressure of the guests.

The scorer of the winning goal in the 2020 Champions League final, Kingsley Coman, again upset the Parisians.

True, this time he scored with his foot, not his head, and Alphonso Davis assisted him, and not Joshua Kimmich.

Galtier was forced to use all his trump cards.

Even during the break, Presnel Kimpembe appeared on the field, and in the 57th minute, Fabian Ruiz and Kylian Mbappe came on as a substitute.

And after that, the high-speed raids of the owners began to look noticeably more dangerous.

Even the Frenchman, who was not in perfect shape, first helped organize a couple of dangerous attacks, and nine minutes before the end of regular time he sent the ball into the net.

But VAR intervened, fixing an offside position at Mendes, who was shooting at a partner.

However, Bayern's problems did not end there.

Already in stoppage time, they remained in the minority - Pavard, who had an excellent meeting, was roughly “cut off” in his own half and was forced to shoot down Messi a meter from the penalty line, for which he received a second yellow card.

But Paris Saint-Germain failed to properly execute the free kick, and there was no time left to realize the numerical advantage.

The Munich team took over and extended the winning streak in the confrontation with the Parisians to three matches.

AC Milan's success

For Milan, the two-legged series with Tottenham was also of tremendous importance.

After all, it could depend on her result whether Stefano Pioli will continue to work in the team or a new mentor will come in his place.

Over the past month, the Rossoneri have suffered seven defeats in eight meetings and have practically lost their chances of winning the Scudetto, and the media have started talking about the resignation of the head coach.

At the same time, possible candidates for his replacement were also named, including not only Brighton head Roberto De Zerbi, but also his current rival Antonio Conte.

True, it was extremely difficult to imagine that the helmsman of the fifth team in the Premier League would actually agree to go down and go to AC Milan, which occupies the same line in the less hyped and stellar Serie A.

Under the leadership of Conte, Tottenham have strengthened themselves among the leaders of the championship of England and this season again fought for getting into the top four, and Daniel Levy, who usually saves on transfers, did not skimp on investments.

This year alone, the president of Spurs bought the Italian players for more than €177 million. And it was hardly worth counting on the same attitude in the fashion capital.

However, at the end of the first half, the impression was that it was Tottenham that was a team from a less prestigious league.

The guests not only looked faded in attack, but also constantly made mistakes in defense.

And one of them led to a missed goal already in the seventh minute.

Theo Hernandez responded to a long throw, pushed through Christian Romero and shot.

Fraser Forster coped with this test, and then prevented Brahim Diaz from finishing the ball into the net, but on the second attempt, the stubborn Spaniard still brought the hosts ahead.

Perhaps it was the absence of important performers that prevented the Conte team from competing on equal terms with opponents.

In addition to Hugo Lloris and Ryan Sessegnon, two key midfield players missed the meeting at once - Rodrigo Bentancur was injured, and Pierre-Emile Hoybjerg went through yellow cards during the group stage.

And Oliver Skipp and Pape Sarr were unable to make up for their absence.

And don't be misled by the fact that, according to FotMob, they have become almost the best among the representatives of the team.

In comparison with their partners, both did not look the best and could not provide stability in defense, nor a “tray of shells” for their leaders.

In the absence of help, Tottenham's all-star trio failed.

For three, Harry Kane, Son Heung Min and Dejan Kulusevski struck only two shots towards the goal (none on target), and the South Korean never touched the ball at all.

As a result, the Londoners only disturbed Milan's reserve goalkeeper Ciprian Tateruşanu only three times and did not create a single worthwhile moment.

This is eloquently confirmed by the statistics of expected goals.

Conte's men lost only 0.52 xG, while their opponents - 1.62.

Milan kept the winning score without any problems and got a good advantage before leaving for London.

True, Tottenham can appear much more formidable at their stadium.

Although for the reason that by this time the disqualification of Hoybjerg will end.