Eric Choupo-Moting’s goal was not enough for the holders, who went out on the away goals rule after another stunning end-to-end contest
In the other tie, Chelsea went through against Porto as expected, though they were beaten 1-0 on the night. They’ll play Real Madrid or Liverpool in the semis.
Related: Chelsea v Porto: Champions League quarter-final, second leg – live!
Blimey. After all that, Paris Saint-Germain will play Manchester City or Borussia Dortmund in the semis. If this estimable, wildly emotional victory doesn’t make them believe they can win the Champions League, nothing ever will.
PSG have put the holders Bayern out in one of the greatest European quarter-finals of all time. Neymar is growling with delight, Mbappe smiling, and Mauricio Pochettino is embracing all his players with considerable feeling. There is so much mutual respect in the post-match hugs and handshakes between the two sets of players. It was a stunning game - not quite as eventful as last week, but even more dramatic because so much was at stake.
Chapeau.
90+3 min Sane twists Bakker inside out again, this time in the area, but he picks the wrong cross and Navas stretches to claim at the near post.
90+2 min Hernandez makes a superb last-ditch tackle on Neymar, who looked set to finally score the goal he has threatened all night. Mbappe was square, desperate for a pass, but Hernandez did so well to partially block it off and make Neymar’s mind up for him.
90+1 min Sane’s inswinging cross is headed miles wide by Coman, who had to jump towards the ball at a very awkward angle. I think he was trying to knock it square to Musiala.
90 min Herrera is booked. Four minutes of added time.
89 min PSG are so close to an immense, triumphant defeat. Mbappe breaks one on one with Hernandez down the left, turns and plays the ball infield for Neymar, who is haring up in support with no Bayern outfield players near him. Neuer sprints outside his area and slides to poke the ball away from Neymar.
88 min Another PSG change: Angel Di Maria, who has had a terrific game, is replaced by Ander Herrera.
87 min Javi Martinez is playing as a centre forward.
86 min After a bit of pinball in the PSG area, Muller’s low shot is blocked by Kimpembe. The flag went up soon after, though whether that was for an offside before or after Muller’s shot I’ve no idea. It was a good chance for Muller: 12 yards out, in space, with the ball rolled slowly back towards him.
86 min “It’s been maligned, but situations like this for me show the value of the away goals rule,” says Paul McGrory. “A goal for Munich and the swing is huge, PSG go from in to out with no inbetween. Can’t think of another scenario in football where the draw or extra time is so removed, and you can see it affect the tension and intensity of the game.”
Yep. I feel slightly guilty for loving it, but I love it.
85 min A slightly strange Bayern substitution: Javi Martinez is on for Choupo-Moting.
84 min Coman’s shot deflects behind for a corner. The level of desperation is quite something.
83 min AT THE OTHER BLOODY END, Di Maria cuts inside on the edge of the area and has a shot blocked.
82 min: So close from Sane! He twisted Bakker inside out, a textbook bit of skill, and guided a cross-shot just wide of the far post. Muller was desperate for a square ball but Sane hedged his bets with the cross-shot.
81 min A free-kick to Bayern on the left wing. Kimmich’s dangerous inswinger is headed up in the air by a PSG defender, and then a panicked Navas runs into his own man Paredes and flattens him. The referee, bizarrely, gives a free-kick against Bayern for the foul by the PSG goalkeeper Navas on the PSG midfielder Paredes.
79 min Mbappe threatens to go through again, this time legitimately, and Hernandez does superbly to dispossess him.
78 min: Mbappe has a goal disallowed! He was put through by Neymar, just past the halfway line, and charged through on Neuer before roofing the ball spectacularly. Then the flag went up, and VAR confirmed it was the correct decision.
77 min Neymar spins a majestic pass out to Kean with the outside of his left foot. He runs confidently at Pavard in the area ... and then wallops the ball into orbit.
76 min Lots of Bayern pressure now. You’d hope so, in the circumstances.
74 min Boateng fouls Neymar on the halfway line. One thing Neymar has done very well tonight, apart from hit the woodwork, is to draw fouls, with each one eating up time and stalling Bayern’s momentum.
74 min Normally in this situation, the popular cliche is ‘Bayern will get one chance, it’s up to them to take it’. But in this game, I’m tempted to say that each team will get at least five more chances.
73 min A PSG change: Julian Draxler off, Moise Kean on.
72 min “All this ‘attacking play’ and ‘quality’ and ‘excitement’ is all well and good,” says Matt Dony, “but it’s no 2003 final, is it? Proper, pure football.”
Related: Juventus 0 - 0 Milan (aet; Milan won 3-2 on penalties)
71 min The marvellous Jamal Musiala comes on to replace Alphonso Davies. That means Alaba will go to left-back.
69 min Sane’s very deep cross from the right hangs in the air forever on its way to the unmarked Coman.He cushions a careful header into the six-yard box, where Paredes makes a desperate clearance just in front of ... a Bayern player, I haven’t a clue who it was and I’m not rewinding it because I’ll probably miss four goals.
69 min Mbappe concedes a corner, which sums up how hard PSG are working defensively, and how desperate they are to see this through. Nothing comes of the corner.
68 min Muller is booked for a late tackle on Paredes, who takes the opportunity to waste 20 seconds. Every little helps.
66 min The ghosts of Champions League past must be running riot in the heads of the PSG players. But if they get through this, they’ll feel like they beat anyone and finally win the bloody thing.
65 min Draxler’s dangerous low cross is claimed well by Neuer.
63 min Choupo-Moting is penalised for fouling Dagba as they jumped for a deep cross. That looked like a 50/50 call, and had the referee not blown his whistle, Coman would have had a clear shot from 10 yards.
62 min: Chance for Bayern! Sane cuts inside Bakker and angles a stunning pass into the area for Muller, who runs on the blind side of Kimpembe and twists to hit a first-time shot that is crucially smothered by Navas. The ball rebounds off Muller and behind for a goalkick. If Navas was at fault for the goal, he’s partially made up for it with two or three terrific saves since.
61 min Can’t we just put them both through, like they do in Masterchef?
60 min A reminder, as if you need one, that PSG are ahead on the away goals rule.
59 min Mitchel Bakker replaces Diallo at left-back.
58 min “Please pass along to Mr. Bommen that if he can stand listening to Spanish commentary, Champions League games can be watched over the air on Univision,” says Matt Burtz (and a few others - thanks).
57 min An injury blow for PSG. Abdou Diallo’s left hamstring can take no more, and he’s going to have to come off.
55 min Dagba is booked for fouling Coman.
53 min: GLORIOUS BLOODY FOOTBALL SKILL AND DRAMA! Mbappe, on the left edge of the area, drives a superb angled pass to Di Maria, eight yards from goal at the far post. He controls it on the chest, then shifts it away from Davies in the same movement. Neuer flies out so Di Maria pokes the ball through his legs and across the face of goal, where the stretching Neymar is this close to putting it into the empty net. “That’s a Paul Gascoigne moment,” says the BT Sport commentator Paul Dempsey. Indeed it was. The skill from Di Maria was glorious.
53 min Alaba is booked for pulling back Neymar. He wasn’t on a card going into the game.
52 min I feel like I’ve used the phrase ‘at the other end’ more in this tie than ever before, such is the speed with which the game moves from one end to the other. Talking of which, at the other end Coman shoots high and wide from 25 yards.
52 min Neuer charges from his area to beat Mbappe to yet another through ball. To say Bayern are living on the edge is an appreciable understatement.
50 min At the other end, Pavard’s cross deflects behind for a corner. The pace is spectacular; it’s like a basketball game being played at 1.5x speed. Early doors and all, but this has to be up there with the greatest European Cup quarter-finals ever played.
Related: The Joy of Six: European Cup quarter-finals
49 min A PSG free-kick is half cleared to Paredes, 35 yards from goal. He flips a nice pass over the defence to Neymar, who takes it down elegantly on the chest and lifts a half-volley over the bar. That was a really tough chance, for most people anyway.
47 min Sane’s fast, flat cross just evades the head of Muller, stooping forward at the near post. Choupo-Moting, at the far post, can’t kill an awkward ball and it eventually rebounds to the edge of the area. Alaba picks up possession and sweeps a fine shot just wide of the far post. This is deliciously tense.
47 min “Not sure how you can call that Navas save a mistake before Choupo-Oting headed it in,” says Robert Lin. “He did incredibly well just to keep out the shot in the first place. Why Alaba was alone in eight yards out is the real question. Navas is the only reason PSG are still in this tie.”
You might be right Mrs Navas, I’ll have another look. We barely get time to look at a replay, never mind form a watertight opinion, when the game is this eventful.
46 min Peep peep!
“I’m just wondering who you had to kiss up to at Guardian Towers to get this MBM,” says Espen Bommen. “You are actually getting PAID to watch this! Over here in the US it’s on a streaming channel so I am paying $10 a month for basically just the Champions League. This game is worth every penny!!”
We’re very lucky, it’s true, but working in the MBM bunker isn’t without its downsides.
Half-time reading
Related: David Squires on … how a streaker tried to end the great Alexander-Arnold Wars
That was another mesmeric 45 minutes. Neymar hit the post twice and the bar for PSG, who were terrifyingly incisive on the break. Bayern smothered PSG and created plenty of half and three-quarter chances before the much maligned Eric Choupo-Moting headed them in front after a mistake from Keylor Navas. PSG are still on course for the semi-finals, just. More, please!
45+2 min: Sane misses an excellent chance! He broke dangerously into the area, hugging the ball on his left as Diallo (I think) backpedalled. Eventually he opened his body to steer a curling shot towards the far corner. At least that was the plan: it was straight at Navas and he saved comfortably.
45 min Two minutes of added time. CAN WE NOT MAKE IT TWO YEARS PLEASE.
45 min The resulting corner leads to a brief game of head tennis in the PSG area. They really need half-time.
44 min PSG are still ahead in the tie, but only on the away goals rule. Alaba tries to change that with a sweet, swirling strike from 25 yards that is pushed away by the flying Navas. That’s a fine save.
42 min Mbappe beats two defenders with a series of stepovers and drags a low shot just wide of the far post. The referee had blown for something, I think obstruction by Neymar on a Bayern defender, so it wouldn’t have counted.
It came down the Bayern left, where Coman - who has had a great first half - beat Dagba and crossed into the middle. Muller steered the bouncing ball deftly into the path of Alaba, whose low shot from eight yards was saved by Navas. But he could only spoon the ball up in the air, and Choupo-Moting muscled Kimpembe out of the way and headed into the net from close range. That’s a mistake from Navas.
And now Bayern have taken the lead!
39 min: Now Neymar hits the post! This is extraordinary. Neymar played a fine pass to release Mbappe, who gave it back to Neymar in the area. He slid a low shot that beat Neuer and hit the post. I’d love to describe it in more detail, but there’s no time because...
39 min Bayern don’t have many attacking options on the bench, just Jamal Musiala really. They are starting to look a little desperate.
37 min: Neymar hits the bar! Ah that was sheer delightful football. Di Maria’s free-kick was headed away to Neymar, 25 yards out in the inside-left channel. He chopped the ball behind his standing leg to beat Coman, then moved inside on his right foot and shaped a delicious curling shot that hit the top of the bar.
36 min Boateng is penalised for roughhousing Mbappe on the left wing. Bayern haven’t a clue how to defend against him.
35 min Replays suggest that Neymar shot’s in fact hit the post. I’m not sure whether Neuer got a touch as well - and either way I think he had it covered - but it definitely hit the post.
34 min Neuer denies Neymar for the third time tonight. Neymar hypnotised Hernandez on the edge of the area with a series of stepovers, then shifted the ball inside and crashed a left-footed shot towards the near post. Neuer plunged to his left to push it away.
34 min This is a good spell for PSG, their best of the match.
32 min Mbappe, just inside the Bayern half, is wrongly flagged offside after being put through on the right wing by Di Maria. It’s hard to see Mbappe going the full 90 minutes without getting a one on one.
31 min This is so good. The pace of the game is barely legal.
28 min Neymar beats Hernandez with a brilliant turn, then falls over and appeals for a penalty. Both players were pulling each other’s shirts, so the referee gives nothing.
27 min: Brilliant save from Neuer! A stunning counter-attack from PSG almost ends in a goal. Di Maria curled a crisp pass down the left to Mbappe, who beat the offside trap and played a superb square ball to the unmarked Neymar on the other side of the area. Neuer charged from his line to block the shot. Mbappe needed eyes in the side of his head to see that pass.
27 min Now Kimmich drives just wide from 20 yards after Bayern win the ball high up the field. His scream of frustration tells you that it was a pretty decent opportunity. PSG really need a breather, or a goal.
26 min A majestic flick from Choupo-Moting finds Sane, charging infield from the right. He manipulates the ball nicely on the run but then curls tamely wide from 20 yards. That was a decent chance.
25 min Danilo makes two important clearances in the space of 10 seconds. Bayern are applying a helluva lot of pressure now.
23 min Coman, who has started superbly, wins the ball 30 yards from the PSG goal and finds Muller on the left of the penalty area. His low cross is cleared. After a slowish start, this is beginning to engage the viscera.
22 min Coman beats Dagba with a lovely feint and stabs a cross that hits Danilo and goes behind for a corner. I think the ball hit his arm, though it was down by his side and there’s no VAR interruption. Kimmich’s corner is headed away by Mbappe. Bayern are starting to rev up.
21 min “With all due respect to Princes,” begins Peter Oh, “could the PSG ground be renamed Parc des Bus, just for today?”
19 min Kimmich sprays a terrific pass out to Coman on the left. He plays in the overlapping Davies, whose cutback misses everyone at the near post. The ball comes to Kimmich, backing up the play on the edge of the area, but his touch is slightly too heavy. PSG break terrifyingly, three on three, but Di Maria’s scoop over the defence runs through to Neuer.
18 min Di Maria is receiving treatment after being fouled by Davies. He’s in quite a lot of pain but is going to continue.
15 min Davies zips infield and finds Choupo-Moting, whose touch lets him down on the edge of the area. He looks like a man who is painfully aware of who he is replacing.
13 min It’s been a relatively comfortable start for PSG. Bayern have had their moments but there hasn’t been the onslaught that Mauricio Pochettino would have feared. Yet.
11 min “Gotta love those Sopranos malapropisms (see 19.28),” says Michal Pac Pomarnacki. “My favourite one is Little Carmine’s ‘the sacred and the propane’ closely followed by Bobby’s ‘Quasimodo predicted all this’.”
9 min At the other end, Mbappe scorches past Pavard and cuts the ball back towards Neymar at the near post. Hernandez gets there first, but his clearance hits Kimmich and rebounds towards Neymar on the six-yard line. His shot on the turn is very well smothered by Neuer.
9 min Bayern are looking dangerous. Sane cuts inside from the right, past three players, and angles a pass to Coman on the left side of the area. His first-time cross is poor and PSG clear, for about two seconds. Kimmich picks up the loose ball and floats it into the area, where Muller arrives and tries to find Choupo Moting with a clever backheader. He gets too much on it and Navas claims.
7 min Coman runs onto a long ball down the left and plays it back to Choupo-Moting just inside the area. He dithers for half a second and is crowded out by PSG defenders. That wasn’t a bad opportunity.
6 min Bayern are trying to pin PSG back, as they did for most of the first leg. The full-backs Davies and Pavard have already had plenty of the ball in the final third.
3 min Neymar plays the ball down the right wing to Mbappe, who looks offside but is allowed to continue and leaves everyone in his slipstream. He cuts into the area and drives a low shot across the face of goal. The angle was really tight, so it wasn’t much of a chance.
1 min Kimmich, who will miss the first leg of the semi-final if he is booked, leaves an early one on Paredes.
1 min Peep peep! Bayern kick off from left to right. Both teams are wearing their home strips.
The players stand to attention for the Champions League theme. Most shift on the spot; Kylian Mbappe stares straight ahead, like the killer he is. What a bloody footballer.
“Prediction, Rob?” says John Ryan. “I see a PSG win; in games like this where everyone is focusing on one team (here Bayern) needing to win and how, it so often ends up being the other (here PSG) who ends up strolling it...”
If Bayern don’t pick up any more injuries, I think they’ll do it. But - newsflash - I don’t really have a clue.
“At 63, and a Spurs supporter since 1967, I became a PSG fan the moment Poch took over,” writes Michael A. “I will never forgive Levy for not backing him and hiring Jose. Wouldn’t it be the coldest meal ever served should Poch win the CL?”
That’s what they say.
Pre-match reading
Related: Pochettino urges PSG to boost home form in Bayern Munich test
PSG make one change from the first leg: Leandro Paredes, available again after suspension, replaces the injured Marquinhos. Danilo, who started in midfield in Munich, will move into the back four. Marco Verratti is on the bench after recovering from Covid.
Bayern have made two changes, both enforced. The injured Niklas Sule and Leon Goretzka are replaced by Alphonso Davies and Jerome Boateng. That means David Alaba will move into midfield alongside Joshua Kimmich. Bayern’s injury list is such that they have only seven substitutes, most of them very inexperienced.
The permutations
Bayern need to win by two clear goals, or by any margin having scored at least four. Unlikely, but not beyond the realms given last week’s excitement.
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Paris Saint-Germain v Bayern Munich from the Parc des Princes. If this game is half as entertaining as the first leg, then it’ll be 50 per cent as exciting. That match, which ended 3-2 to PSG, was a classic of its kind; a week later I am still struggling to recall a game with so few lulls in the action.
Tonight’s match could be even more exhilarating, mainly because the stakes are higher. There are no second chances; by 11pm tonight, one of the favourites will be out of the Champions League. And last week’s result means that, unless we get to the stage where Bayern lead 3-2 tonight, the tie will never be level. One of the teams will always need a goal (or two, in Bayern’s case, as things stand) to avoid elimination.
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