Kolkata: Called a classic, there’s a reference to his US Open five-setter against Marcos Baghdatis early in Andre Agassi’s biography. Agassi won and was flat out on his back in the locker room when he noticed Baghdatis extending his hand. “I reach out, take his hand and we remain this way, holding hands, as the TV flickers with scenes of our savage battle,” is how it is described in “Open.”
The handshake between Luis Enrique and Vincent Kompany was brief but conveyed a similar sense at the Parc des Princes after a Champions League night termed “wonderfully ridiculous” by the television commentator after Luis Diaz scored. Paris St-Germain (PSG) beat Bayern Munich 5-4 but Enrique was right when he said all three verdicts were possible. “Lots to digest,” said Harry Kane.
It needed moments like a Nuno Mendes pass for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia that went out and Michael Olise’s ball that Leon Goretzka didn’t expect to remind us that this wasn’t a video game. Olise being unable to dink it over PSG goalie Matvey Safonov moments before Ousmane Dembele failed to bend a shot into Manuel Neuer’s goal provided further proof that men not machines were at work in Paris.
For most of the night, it was what Dembele said: “Two great teams who attack and don’t question themselves.” So what if it was the first leg of the semi-final. Trailing 2-4, Bayern pushed seven players up and Dembele made it 5-2 from a counter initiated by Kvaratskhelia. Just when the match, maybe even the tie, looked done, Bayern scored through Dayot Upamecano (65) and Diaz (68) showing the attitude that helped them overturn Real Madrid in the quarter-final and turn a 0-3 deficit into a 4-3 win in Bundesliga at the weekend. Data from Sportingpedia shows Bayern have the most points (28) from a losing position in Europe’s top seven leagues this term.
PSG had five shots on target and converted all of them; Bayern needed eight. Unusually for a high-scoring thriller, none of the goals could be attributed to a goalkeeping lapse; Safonov actually had a good game. No first-leg semi-final has had nine goals in the history of this competition. No first half had a 3-2 scoreline either.
It was a lesson in pressing, long passes, brilliant passes like Kane’s for Bayern’s fourth goal and one he cushioned for Olise which could have made it 2-0, of gaps created, gaps filled by relentless running and rotation. Achraf Hakimi pressed Alphonso Davies near Bayern’s penalty area, Dembele dropped deep, Kane deeper, Desire Doue paired Kvaratskhelia on the left for PSG’s first goal though he was the designated right-side attacker and Konrad Laimer nearly made it 5-5 belying the fact that he was on the pitch as left back.
It was also an exhibition of dribbling with Kvaratskhelia and Olise being the first among equals and Diaz not too far behind. Neapolitans have found shades of Diego Maradona in Kvaratskhelia and now the left-side attacker is drawing comparisons with George Best. The way Kvaratskhelia (10 goals and five assists in 25-26 Champions League) showed Josip Stanisic that he was going on the outside before driving inside to make it 1-1 in the 24th minute showed why.
For his second goal, Kvaratskhelia drifted infield and beat Neuer by doing the opposite of what he had for the first. Dembele sold a dummy and Hakimi’s pass went to Kvaratskhelia who had arrived unnoticed. Dembele’s goal in the 58th minute meant that Neuer had been beaten at the near post twice in two minutes.
Light on his feet, Olise (5 goals, 8 assists in 25-26 Champions League) gave Mendes a tough time; few in Europe can claim to have done that recently. Olise beating Mendes and forcing a goalline save from Marquinhos and Doue wriggling into the Bayern penalty area happened within seconds in the 32nd minute. In the 33rd, Joao Neves put PSG ahead 2-1 with a powerful header after beating his marker Jamal Musiala to Dembele’s corner-kick. In the 34th, and after being turned and twisted by Dembele, Upamecano managed to block the PSG attacker.
Barely had you caught your breath when Olise made it 2-2 in the 41st minute this time driving through the centre. Half-time happened with Dembele making it 3-2 from a penalty awarded because the ball had struck Davies’s hand as he tried to turn.
If that penalty was about power, the one by Kane, won by Diaz drawing a foul from Willian Pacho, in the 17th minute for his 54th goal of the season was big on placement. It was also the only time Bayern led on the night against the defending champions.
