This Wednesday night, there is good news and bad news for French football. The bad refers to the elimination of Lyon, official supplier of emotions in August but ousted from the Champions League in the semi-finals. For the first time in 23 years, OL will not play in the European Cup next season and, frankly, that too is not good for French chances.
The good news concerns what awaits us, a football summit, a dream poster, a PSG – Bayern Munich Sunday at the Luz stadium in Lisbon. Paris, having taken out Bergamo and Leipzig, is done with their Europa League journey and in turn tackle a European juggernaut, a team with five Champions Leagues, the fourth best total in the world behind Real Madrid, l ‘AC Milan and Liverpool. Paris will want to win its first star at the same time when hers align to caress all the wildest hopes.
The good news, before coming to the obstacles, is also that this Bayern remains affordable. Its central hinge moves like a sometimes stiff Jérôme Boateng and, behind the side, there are spaces for Kylian Mbappé and Angel Di Maria. After that, you have to beat Manuel Neuer, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, and that’s obviously another story. Lyon got two huge opportunities from the start with a rush in depth from Memphis Depay (4th) then a strike on the post from Karl Toko Ekambi (17th), who will miss a new face-to-face after the break (58th ).
A bewitching offensive power
OL had always led since the round of 16, against Juventus twice and Manchester City. Maybe that first goal would have changed the face of the game. Paris may have more chances with their upper offensive line. Neymar will end up scoring, that’s the meaning of the story after a prodigious Final 8.
The smiling catalog can stop there. Hans-Dieter Flick’s team possesses a bewitching offensive power summed up in the statistics of two of their attackers. Robert Lewandowski and Serge Gnabry have scored 24 goals this season in the Champions League, including a double this Wednesday for the untenable 25-year-old German international, his 8th and 9th in the event. The Pole, he scored his 55th goal of the season including 15 in C1!
Reunion between French
The perpetual movement of the German attackers, their game without the ball, their clinical side diffuse a threat that the club of the capital has not known until now, or so at the beginning, in the group stage against Real Madrid (3- 0 at the Parc; 2-2 at the Bernabeu). Only the memory of Karim Benzema can remind Paris of the level that Lewandowski offers, of world class.
PSG – Bayern will also bring together friends, with four French world champions on the scoresheet, two holders in Paris (Mbappé and Kimpembe) and three substitutes for the Bavarian team (Lucas Hernandez, Corentin Tolisso and Benjamin Pavard). Until Euro 2021, it is likely to room in the locker room of the Blues for the losers.
On the bench of PSG, there will be Thomas Tuchel, contacted last November by Bayern when it was necessary to separate from Niko Kovac. He did well to stay: his team has everything to beat the Munich, sublime in front, captivable behind.
Lyon – Bayern Munich : 0-3
Half time: 0-2
Spectators: game behind closed doors
Referee: A. Mateu Lahoz (ESP)
Buts : Gnabry (18e, 33e), Lewandowski (88e)
Warnings: Marcelo (35e), Marçal (42e), Mendes (86e)
Lyon : A. Lopes – Dubois (Tete 67e), Denayer, Marcelo, Marçal (Cherki 73e), Cornet – Caqueret, Guimaraes (Mendes 46e), Aouar – Toko Ekambi (Reine-Adelaide 67e), Depay (ch.) (Dembele 58e) . Coach: Rudi Garcia
Bayern Munich : Neuer (cap.) – Kimmich, Boateng (Suele 46e), Alaba, Davies – Gnabry (Coutinho 75e), Goretzka (Pavard 82e), Müller, Thiago Alcantara (Tolisso 82e), Perisic (Coman 63e) – Lewandowski. Coach: Hans-Dieter Flick
