PSG edge Bayern 5-4 in the highest-scoring Champions League semi-final on record
The Champions League semi-final at the Parc des Princes did not so much start as detonate, and it never properly stopped. PSG and Bayern Munich got through five goals before the half-time whistle on Tuesday night and added another four inside 13 minutes after the restart. The holders edged it 5-4, and they take a one-goal lead to the Allianz Arena on May 6.
It is the highest-scoring semi-final the Champions League has produced since the competition was rebranded in 1991-92. Reach back further, into the European Cup, and the only nine-goal semi-final on record is Eintracht Frankfurt's 6-3 win over Rangers in 1959-60. The match Tuesday night will not need that kind of historical footnote to be remembered.
Kane, Kvaratskhelia and a Neves header
Bayern struck first. Willian Pacho caught Luis Diaz on the run into the box and the referee pointed to the spot. Harry Kane planted the kick into the bottom corner in the 17th minute and the visitors had the start they wanted. It was the sixth straight Champions League match Kane has scored in.
The lead lasted seven minutes. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia picked the ball up on the left, beat his man, drifted inside and curled an effort beyond Manuel Neuer to bring PSG level. Eight minutes later Joao Neves came in unmarked at the near post from a Dembele corner and got the flick that put the home side ahead.
Olise levels with a strike from distance
Bayern needed something out of nothing and Michael Olise produced it. The Frenchman picked up possession on the right edge of the box, took one touch to set himself, and bent a shot back across goal that flew past Matvey Safonov in the 41st minute. It was a goal of pure technique on a night that did not have much patience for it.
The second equaliser felt like the natural break point, and for four minutes it was. Then deep into added time, Alphonso Davies stuck out a hand to block a cross inside the area. VAR took its time and the referee gave the penalty. Dembele waited for Neuer to commit, slid the ball the other way, and PSG had a 3-2 cushion to take into the dressing room.
Kvaratskhelia and Dembele add their seconds
Whatever Luis Enrique said at half-time, his front three came back out and looked the more threatening. In the 56th minute Kvaratskhelia got his second, gliding past a defender on the same diagonal he had scored on in the first half. Two minutes later Dembele added his second, and PSG had stretched a one-goal lead into a 5-2 cushion in the space of just over a hundred and twenty seconds. The Parc des Princes thought it was over.
It was not. From a Joshua Kimmich free-kick whipped in from 30 yards, Dayot Upamecano timed his run to the far post and headed Bayern back into the night in the 65th minute. Three minutes after that, Luis Diaz finished off another flowing move to make it 5-4. From a 5-2 lead, PSG were suddenly hanging on.
The last twenty-odd minutes were almost the strangest part of the match. All nine goals had landed inside the first 68 minutes, and from there neither side scored again. Bayern pushed and PSG defended, and a half-time scoreline that had felt like the headline ended up just being the warm-up.
Kompany watches from the stands
Vincent Kompany was not on the touchline for any of it. The Bayern coach picked up his third yellow card of the competition during the quarter-final against Real Madrid, when he disputed the call that allowed Kylian Mbappe's goal to stand, and the automatic one-match ban kicked in for Tuesday. Aaron Danks took charge of the bench in his place.
Kompany returns for the second leg, where Bayern need to overturn a one-goal deficit at home against a side that has not lost a knockout tie since lifting the trophy last season. PSG manager Luis Enrique left the Parc des Princes with the lead he came for, and a defensive review to write before the team flies to Bavaria.
The other semi-final, between Atletico Madrid and Arsenal, kicks off on Wednesday. The final is at the Puskas Arena in Budapest on May 30.
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