Bayern Munich Scare Not Enough To Stop PSG Champions League Dreams
Bayern Munich spirited performance in Paris could not stop PSG from marching on to the semi-finals of the champions league for the second season in a row having previously failed to advance past the Round of 16 in the three previous seasons.
However, thanks to Kylian Mbappe heroics in Germany last week, they avoided another pain from the reigning champions in Paris. The Bundesliga leaders also have Manuel Neur to thank for avoiding a double defeat against Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
PSG took off from their last week performance with Mbappe seeing an early effort travel wide before Neymar forced Neur to make a scrambling save inside 10 minutes of play. Leroy Sane and Joshua Kimmich also spurned their own share of opportunities by shooting wide and failing to pick the target respectively before Neur made another save to deny Neymar before the half hour mark.
Neur was again alert to deny Neymar before the Brazilian found a new nemesis in the bar and right post when both denied him in quick succession. The Bavarians would however not require many such chances before they bury the ball in the net with Eric Choupo-Moting right on hand to head in a rebound after Navas had saved Alaba’s cross into the box.
The Bavarians would go into the break holding the 1 -0 lead which means they now needed just one more goal to seal progress into the last four. But that was not before Navas had produced another top save to deny Alaba, and Sane spurned a chance by shooting wide in first-half added time.
Soon after recess, Alaba, Paredes, Pavard and Mbappe all missed chances for their respective sides under ten minutes after the restart. Thomas Muller and Kean then took turns to also spurn chances before Bayern Munich was saved by a Boateng offside trap which caused Mbappe’s equalizer to be disallowed.
Pochettino’s side then held on to maintain the 0 – 1 score which ensured they progressed on away goals after the were level 3 – 3 after 180 minutes of end-to-end football action.
PSG will now await the winner of the Manchester City – Borussia Dortmund clash to know their semi-final opponent. They would however temporarily turn their attention to the fight for the Ligue 1 title when they host St Etienne on Sunday. Bayern Munich meanwhile after dropping two points over the weekend would hope to increase their hold at the top of Bundesliga when they travel to take on Wolfsburg on Saturday.
By: Clifford Adumbire | myactiveonline.com
