Sensation Crusher
For Bayern, the return match of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League promised to be largely decisive.
The Munich team has already managed, if not to lose their chances of winning the German championship, then to reduce them to a minimum, falling behind the leading Bayer by as much as ten points.
And in the Champions League they were one step away from a deafening failure.
Three weeks ago, Thomas Tuchel's team suffered a sensational defeat away from the modest Lazio and made fans think about a repeat of the 2011 fiasco.
It was then that the Germans were left without national championship gold for the last time and, at the same time, stumbled in the first round of the European Cup playoffs.
Moreover, a team from Italy, Inter, also stood in their way.
In addition, the fate of the head coach could well depend on the outcome of this confrontation.
Yes, the club's management had already announced his departure at the end of the season, but elimination from the Champions League at such an early stage could force the bosses to reconsider their decision and dismiss him back in March.
This was confirmed by Sky Sport journalist Florian Plettenberg, according to whom, in this case, the likelihood of the specialist’s early dismissal “will be very high.”
And it was necessary for Bayern to correct the situation with an extremely truncated roster.
In response, Tuchel could not count on a whole group of injured players, as well as Dayot Upamecano, who received a red card in the first meeting.
In this regard, the pair in the center of defense were Matthijs de Ligt and Eric Dier, while Joshua Kimmich came out on the right flank.
Yes, at the beginning of his career, the heir to Philip Lahm also played the role of a full-back, but then retrained as a defensive midfielder.
At the same time, 19-year-old Alexander Pavlovich formed a pairing with Leon Goretskaya in the middle line, who played only 26 minutes in the tournament.
And at first, little worked for Bayern, although it might have seemed otherwise against the backdrop of the first match.
If there the Munich team never forced Ivan Provedel to demonstrate his skills, then here it happened already in the sixth minute - Leroy Sane hit the target.
But then the game calmed down, and Lazio was unable to regularly create pressure at the goal.
Over the next half hour, all that can be remembered is Harry Kane’s “shot” from outside the penalty area and a funny episode with the participation of the chief referee.
Slavko Vincic tried to dodge the ball, but slipped and fell, preventing Thomas Müller's pass from reaching Jamal Musiala.
And it caused anger from both the owners and the fans.
Lazio's counterattack came as a bolt from the blue.
The throw into the penalty area from the left flank was incredibly accurate, and Ciro Immobile could not miss from a couple of meters.
But the most experienced Italian miraculously missed the target, and two minutes later there was a reason to remember the old sporting truth.
True, this time the punishment for extravagance was imposed at double the rate.
In the 38th minute, Harry Kane completed a multi-play with the participation of Musiala and Rafael Guerreiro, and Thomas Müller scored in the second compensated game in hockey style.
The German opened up on the offside line and exposed his head to either a powerful blow or a cross from de Ligt, who connected to the corner.
Thus, in a short period of time, Lazio’s position changed dramatically.
If before this they needed to maintain the advantage, now they need to go forward and score twice.
But Bayern could no longer be stopped.
The Germans caught the courage and began to besiege the opponent's penalty area, and in the middle of the second half they upset Provedel for the third time.
The Russian-Italian goalkeeper parried Leroy Sane's long-range shot, but could no longer prevent Kane from finishing.
After this, the Munich team slowed down and played out the rest of the meeting at a fairly average pace.
But there was no reason to engage the maximum gear - the Romans were unable to organize even a semblance of an assault and created practically nothing in front.
Therefore, the main event of the last 25 minutes of the second half was the appearance on the field of Alphonso Davies, Conrad Laimer and Serge Gnabry, who were absent due to injury.
Bayern defeated Lazio at home and for the fifth time in a row overcame the barrier of the first round of the Champions League playoffs.
Bayern players Thomas Müller and Leroy Sane
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© Stefan Matzke - sampics / Contributor
No chance of a comeback
Imanol Alguacil’s team also had to win back.
But if they believed in the success of Bayern, despite the team being in a deep crisis, then few people bet on Real Sociedad.
Indeed, it was extremely difficult to imagine how the Spaniards practically repeated Barcelona’s achievement and staged a remontade in the confrontation with Paris Saint-Germain, even with a 0:2 score.
And it’s not the absence of Arsen Zakharyan who was injured.
It’s just that the blue and white simply did not have the necessary resources to defeat Kylian Mbappe and company.
And already in the 15th minute, Sociedad’s hopes for a comeback were practically dashed.
Earlier, Mbappe had already visited the opponent's penalty area several times and could even have scored an assist if Alex Remiro had not saved Bradley Barcol's shot from close range.
The second time, the Frenchman decided not to share the ball and did everything himself.
He again burst into the left half-flank zone, swayed the guard with a couple of deceptive movements and irresistibly shot into the far corner.
At the same time, he slightly tore the net, which provoked a short pause.
This failure broke Alguacil's team.
At times they tried to actively press, but absolutely nothing happened in front.
During the first half, the Basques made only two shots on goal and even hit the target, but in total they produced only 0.05 expected goals (xG).
For comparison, among Parisians this figure was almost 17 times higher (0.83).
And if not for Remiro’s reaction, the same Mbappe could have scored a double even before the break.
In the end, the Frenchman still did it, but in the second half.
Lee Kang-in, who came on as a substitute during the break, made a throw into the free space, and Mbappe ran away from the defenders and easily dealt with the goalkeeper.
Real Sociedad was so stunned that they simply stopped offering Paris Saint-Germain any semblance of resistance.
The hosts allowed the guests to have the ball more than 70% of the time and practically did not think about counterplay.
A small turnaround occurred only after the appearance of Ander Barrenechea and Beñat Turrientes on the field, who revived Sociedad's game.
The hosts began to attack more actively and even scored, but the goal was canceled due to offside.
However, this did not stop them.
And on the second try, they still performed everything in accordance with the rules.
Mikel Merino scored the goal, bringing some joy to his own fans who filled the Reale Arena in San Sebastian.
One way or another, Paris Saint-Germain won a landslide victory on aggregate (4:1) and advanced to the quarterfinals, which it has not achieved since 2021.
Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe
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