Key events
Report, reaction and analysis
Vincent Kompany’s reaction
I think we gave everything. It was a game of details. We’ve played five times against PSG in the last two years – we won two times, they won two times and tonight was a draw.
We have to look at some of the phases that were decided by the officials across the two games. It’s never an excuse, but it matters. If you look at both legs, probably too much went against us. But the guys gave everything. We tried against a fantastic PSG team.
If you look at both penalties [the one given against Alphonso Davies last week and the one not given against Joao Neves tonight] it’s ridiculous. A little bit of common sense… whatever needs to happen. It’s a one-goal game in the end.
Then there’s the [potential] second yellow card [for Nuno Mendes] in the first half. I thought he was giving it and I felt he pulled out because he realised he’d already given him a yellow and he didn’t want to send him off, so he turned it round and gave PSG a free-kick.
I thought we did extremely well at bringing the ball into dangerous areas, and they did extremely well at defending the key areas of the box. On crosses and cutbacks they defending really well. I thought we disrupted a lot of the pressing they do, but they’re a dangerous team and you can never completely put them out of the tie. It’s margins, it’s details. It’s two great teams. Congratulations to them, and good luck to them.
Bayern Munich are a great, great club, and even then they win the Champions League on average once every 10 years. That’s how difficult it is. I’m not in a mindframe where I question everything because we haven’t won it, but the desire is to push for that extra step.
Nick Ames
It cannot always be a laugh a minute. Paris Saint-Germain will play Arsenal in the Champions League final and they made sure of that by getting serious, nullifying an off-key Bayern Munich and rarely wobbling after adding to their first-leg lead. Luis Enrique’s team should have won by more in a match that did not, and probably never could, hit the previous week’s heights but their triumph was underpinned by an aptitude for the dirtier work that would serve them well in Budapest.
Ousmane Dembélé’s emphatic third-minute finish seemed to have ended this semi-final’s goalfest and the regret for Vincent Kompany will be that Bayern were a yard short of their sharpest all night. It could have been different if one of their openings before the break, Jamal Musiala spurning the best, had gone in but Harry Kane’s added-time goal came far too late.
Bayern’s players look devastated as they walk round applauding the home fans. They have been brilliant all season – they’ve scored 175 goals FFS – and took PSG to the wire.
Now it’s Arsenal turn. PSG beat Arsenal 3-1 on aggregate in last season’s semi-final, but Arsenal played excellently in Paris and ran them very close. From memory Gianluigi Donnarumma made three world-class saves across the tie, so while PSG will rightly be favourites, Arsenal have more than a puncher’s chance.
Clear your diary for the evening of 30 May is what we’re saying.
Luis Enrique breaks into a huge smile before embracing all his players. PSG were the better team tonight and deserve to win a wonderful semi-final. They played with the authority of champions, the joie de vivre of kids in the playground and the work ethic of blue-collar ants.
At times, particularly in their computerised passing and movement, it was hard to comprehend that a football team could be so good. And Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who made Ousmane Dembele’s early goal, was knee-tremblingly brilliant.
Yeah, I’m probably getting carried away. But if you don’t enjoy watching this PSG team, you’re clinically dead inside.
Full time: Bayern Munich 1-1 Paris Saint-Germain (agg: 5-6)
And now only Arsenal can stop Paris Saint-Germain retaining the Champions League.
90+6 min Marquinhos is down, ostensibly with cramp.
90+5 min Kane’s goal was Bayern’s 175th of the season. A 176th would bring the house down.
Bayern have 60 seconds to get another goal. Davies fed a short pass into Kane, who shifted the ball to the side of Pacho and rammed a brilliant left-foot shot into the roof of the net.
GOAL! Bayern 1-1 Paris Saint-Germain (Kane 90+4); agg: 5-6
Erm, hello!
90+3 min Kvaratskhelia, who has been utterly magnificent, waits for Diaz to foul him from behind. The PSG bench all roar in celebration when the free-kick is awarded.
90+2 min Luis Diaz runs across the edge of the PSG area and tries a cute through pass to Karl. It’s cut out.
Apparently there have been nine more shots in this game than there were last week. Yeah, thanks lads.
90+1 min “Kvaratskhelia cavorts around the pitch,” writes Justin Kavanagh. “Or maybe he Kvorts. But whatever he does, it’s a lot of fun to watch. Arsenal beware.”
90 min Five minutes of added time. Bayern Munich need a hero, or a Joselu.
89 min Before tonight Bayern had scored 85 goals in 23 games this season, yet PSG have kept them at arm’s length all night. Of all their extraordinary qualities, the ability to control games away to high-class opposition stands out.
87 min Karl and then Laimer have shots blocked by PSG defenders. The latter led to an appeal for handball that was soon cleared by VAR.
PSG go down the other end and Neuer dives to his left to push away Barcola’s curler.
85 min: PSG substitution Senny Mayulu comes on for Nuno Mendes.
85 min: Bayern substitution Lennart Karl replaces Dayot Upamecano.
84 min The good news for Arsenal is that, as things stand, Harry Kane is not going to beat them in the Champions League final. The bad news is they’ll have to face the best club side since Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.
83 min Kvaratskhelia wins the ball in the centre circle and plays an early through pass to… what the hell is Nuno Mendes doing at centre-forward?! No matter: Mendes tries to chip Neuer from distance but gets it all wrong.
81 min “Well,” says James Humphries, “since it’s apparently not gonna be another nine-goal game, what do we all think the correct verb for Kvaratskhelia on the run is, then? I can see the appeal of ‘scurrying’, but I prefer ‘bustling’ myself. Seems heavier on the shoulder-work.”
I’m not sure about ‘bustling’. If nothing else, it makes him sound like a county seamer from the 1990s who bowled a heavy ball and once went on an England A tour.
79 min Out of nothing, Kvaratskhelia explodes into the Bayern area. But he’s too quick for his own good: he can’t get the ball out of his feet and mishits a close-range shot that is cleared by Kim.
79 min: Bayern substitution Jamal Musiala is replaced by Nicolas Jackson.
78 min Luis Diaz is booked for dissent. He fell on the ball and handled it just outside the PSG area, though Diaz thought he’d been fouled by a PSG player.
77 min: Double substitution for PSG Lucas Hernandez and Lucas Beraldo replace Fabian Ruiz and Desire Doue.
76 min Doue drags a shot from the edge of the D that goes just wide with Neuer motionless.
PSG are just too good; they should be illegal. If Arsenal win the Champions League by beating this lot, they deserve endless praise.
74 min “I’ve missed all the game due to woke tears moving on with my life after going out to half of this lot but haven’t seen Diaz mentioned,” says Ian Copestake. “Surely he’s going to have a say, no?”
There was a spell in the first half when I thought he had the beating of Zaire-Emery. Wrong!
73 min “I think I remember Scott doing a Joy of Six on smoking sports stars?” writes Simon McMahon. “Cruyff, Socrates, and golfer Lloyd Mangrum, all of whom I suspect could make vaping look cool if they were around today, spring to mind.”
Even by Scott’s standards, this piece is hilarious.
72 min Doue, 12 yards out to the left of centre, thrashes a shot into the side netting after another mesmeric run from Kvaratskhelia. He has redefined sexy football tonight.
70 min Olise cuts inside from the right, beating Nuno Mendes in the process, only to sidefoot a shot straight at Safonov from the edge of the area.
69 min A sharp cross from the substitute Davies reaches Diaz 15 yards from goal. He stabs the ball up in the air and forces a volley that is pushed away by the diving Safonov. A relatively comfortable save, but a more promising move from Bayern.
68 min: Double substitution for Bayern Alphonso Davies and Kim Min-jae replace Josip Stanisic and Jonathan Tah.
66 min Kvaratskhelia clips a delicious pass over the top to release Nuno Mendes, who moves into the area but then slips as a Bayern defender comes across to challenge. Some of PSG’s passing and movement has been joyful.
65 min: PSG substitution Bradley Barcola replaces the goalscorer Ousmane Dembele.
64 min: Good save by Neuer! Doue picks the ball up in his own half, dribbles to within 25 yards of goal and hits an early shot across goal. Neuer dives low to his right to push it round the post; that’s another pretty good save.
63 min That effort from Stanisic is Bayern’s only shot on target since half-time. With the caveat that football is bonkers and things can change very quickly, Bayern are really struggling.
62 min A tame long-range shot from Stanisic is easily held by Safonov. Bayern have taken far too many low-percentage shots tonight.
