Save De Ligt on the line, Veratti’s mistake – and Bayern kicked PSG out of the Champions League. That’s how it was

Understood.

Bayern confidently beat PSG and reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League – 2-0 at home after winning away.

In the first half, the Parisians controlled the ball and created chances, but Bayern’s defense blocked everything. Even the slightly nervous Jan Sommer did not help PSG: he has no experience in the Champions League playoffs yet, you can explain, but the French team did not take advantage.

The main moment was annulled by Matthijs de Ligt – the Dutchman backed up after a mistake by Sommer, who was covered while dribbling in his penalty area, and carried the ball out of an empty net after Vitinya’s shot.

The defender swept very nicely to take out from the line.

Aesthetics and utility at the same time.

And we know for sure that Matthijs himself enjoys such moments. “Dirty work is very important. It is people who call her dirty, but to me she seems very beautiful. Knock the ball with your head away, win the duel. I’m an old-school defender in that sense.”

***

In the second half, Bayern woke up, but the guests were completely lost. In the 61st minute, Thomas Müller and Leon Goretzka deftly trap Marco Veratti, the PSG midfielder was forced to cut off in his penalty area, Erik-Maxim Choupo-Moting calmly rolled into an empty corner.

Not only did PSG not come close to a two-goal comeback, they conceded more in the end – the reactive Serge Gnabry converted the moment in the 89th minute and finally calmed everyone down.

The Parisians are out, Bayern comfortably move on.

Bayern is a nightmare for PSG. Like the Champions League playoffs in general

Meetings with the Munich team are sheer agony for Paris.

• It’s not just Barça that Bayern are a nightmare: they’ve won five of their last six matches against PSG, with a clean sheet in the last three.

• Messi doesn’t like playing against Bayern either: he hasn’t scored or provided an assist in four games in a row, and last scored against the Germans in the 2014/15 Champions League first semi-final when Barcelona won 3-0. Then after all there were also 2:8 – there Leo didn’t make anything effective.

• PSG have already lost six games in 2023. But before the New Year there was not a single defeat in the season. Now, in this unfortunate segment, “Paris” flew out not only from the Champions League, but also from the French Cup.

• For the first time in the era of the sheikhs, the Parisians did not score a single goal in the playoffs, and for the first time in the history of the club they did not play a single match in the tournament to zero, conceded in all eight matches.

“I don’t think that the Parisians created problems for us,” Dayo Upamecano is proud after this game. “We knew it would be difficult for both teams. I often played against Mbappe and tried to close him, it was not easy. We knew we had to close the free zones.”

“Of course, we were aware of Bayern’s pressure, we shouldn’t have been embarrassed by long passes in order to break him,” Christophe Galtier admitted. – But after an hour of the game, if you are already losing, it becomes difficult. I don’t know if this game should be some kind of lesson, but there is definitely disappointment, irritation. If we had opened the score, the game would have gone differently.”