Bayern Munich (FC Bayern) will play Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League final after beating Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon) on Wednesday. The match will happen at the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica on Sunday at 3:00 pm ET.
Bayern Munich have steamrollered their way into the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League final with far-reaching prevails upon Chelsea, Barcelona, and Lyon, and now just Paris Saint-Germain remain between the Bavarian giants and a 6th mainland crown.
Here are five reasons why the French champions ought to be shaking at the possibility of confronting their German counterparts at the Estadio da Luz on Sunday…
Robert Lewandowski has scaled more noteworthy statures than any time in recent memory in 2019/20. Bayern’s lean, mean, goal machine has top-scored in the Bundesliga (34), the DFB Cup (6), and the Champions League itself (15), with his eye-watering count of 55 creation him by a wide margin the most productive striker in Europe.
Thiago Silva and Co. will unquestionably have their hands full attempting to contain the 31-year-old, a dead-eyed finisher who is additionally one of the world’s best with his back to goal. He flaunts an unselfish side, as well, having teed up his partners nine times in the Bundesliga (4) and the Champions League (5) this season.
Nonetheless, on the off chance that you think PSG can pull off-centering the entirety of their defensive efforts on Lewandowski, reconsider. The Pole will be surrounded by a five-star supporting cast – who had surely as of now scored five goals in the quarter-final against Barcelona when their unstoppable No.9 at long last jumped on the scoresheet.
Serge Gnabry was Bayern’s semi-final hero, scoring a saltine and afterward slipping in from short range to put the five-time European champions on course for Sunday’s showpiece. The 25-year-old was likewise the scourge of the London clubs this term, scoring four against Tottenham in the group stage and support in the last-16 first leg against Chelsea. With nine goals altogether, he lies third in the Champions League scoring charts behind Lewandowski and Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland (10). Throw in another 12 goals in the Bundesliga and two in the DFB Cup, and Gnabry is making the most of his highest-scoring season to date.
In the interim, Thomas Müller gave the world an ideal token of his astounding gifts in the 8-2 win over Barca, hammering home the opener after an exquisite one-two with Lewandowski and afterward sneaking a poacher’s goal at the close to post to everything except settling the challenge at 4-1. The Bundesliga’s record single-season help supplier even set up Philippe Coutinho late on for good measure.
With Coutinho, Ivan Perisic, and their previous player Kingsley Coman additionally in the mix, PSG are ensured to have their work curtailed. Bayern have gotten 42 goals in 10 Champions League excursions this season – an average of over four for each game – and the threat truly can emerge out of anyplace.
Who could have envisioned, a year prior, that Alphonso Davies would be charged as one of the vital participants to watch going into Bayern’s 11th European Cup or Champions League final? The 19-year-old’s advancement has been remarkable, as lightning-fast as the sprints that have earned him the nickname “Road Runner” among his colleagues.
An incredible competitor who at present owns the Bundesliga speed record (22.7mph), the Canada international’s prosperity is down to something other than his rankling pace. He likewise has a strategy, vision, crossing capacity, and ever-improving expectations, which are helping him to have a critical effect for Hansi Flick’s side at the two finishes of the pitch.
Consider Joshua Kimmich’s fifth goal against Barcelona, which snuffed out any expectations of a Catalan rebound following Luis Suarez’s fine completion for 4-2. After getting ownership of the left flank, Davies avoided past Lionel Messi and Arturo Vidal before being brought to a stop by Nelson Semedo. One clever jink and he was past his man and blasting up the byline, giving Kimmich a basic completion from five yards out.
“That assist, wow! It was world-class,” colleague Jerome Boateng pronounced thereafter. “It’s not often there’s such a talented youngster who explodes like that and finds their position. I’m happy for him because he’s a likable boy away from the pitch. There’s still so much potential there. It wasn’t his regular position in the past, so you can still expect more from him. He’s still going to get much better.”
Davies is probably going to arrange inverse Angel Di Maria, who has been PSG’s best player this season, however, the Argentine could see his creative impact smothered with the Canadian buzzing around him – simply ask Lyon’s Karl Toko Ekambi. Kylian Mbappe has additionally been known to focus on the correct flank and is absolutely the genuine article, however, the 2018 FIFA World Cup champ may not extravagant being brought into a footrace with Bayern’s turbo-charged No.19.
Are there any shortcomings in this Bayern side? Assuming this is the case, Flick is making a huge showing of staying quiet about them, since his team are appreciating a stunning run of 28 successes and a lone draw since mid-December 2019. Goals scored 97. Goals conceded 22.
Bayern are right now working as a consistent unit: defending high up the pitch, squeezing with mind-boggling power and afterward changing quickly, punishing rivals with military-grade accuracy on account of their high-beat, one-touch attacking play. Significantly, Flick’s men work constantly for one another. As a team, they secured more than six miles more than Barcelona in the quarter-final, while in the semis they dominated possession, seeing 64 percent of the ball and making twice as many of passes (676) as Lyon (353).
Boateng and David Alaba’s central defensive partnership has been a disclosure, even though the previous could be supplanted by the returning Niklas Süle for the final in the wake of tweaking a muscle against Lyon. Kimmich has slotted back in easily at right-back without the harmed Benjamin Pavard and is probably going to keep his place regardless of whether the Frenchman is likewise fit once more. All things considered, the midfield double-pivot of Thiago and Leon Goretzka has been working easily without a doubt. As their final defense, the Bavarians additionally gloat maybe the best goalkeeper ever in Manuel Neuer. A motivational leader and captain, the 34-year-old was in amazing form against Lyon and remains the undisputed No.1 for club and nation.
All through the season, Neuer and his defensive stalwarts have figured out how to keep the big boys calm. Harry Kane could just score from the penalty spot as the German champions grabbed 10 goals in two meetings with Spurs, while Messi scarcely got a look-in as his team tumbled to the heaviest European defeat in their history. Indeed, even in the Bundesliga, Bayern restricted RB Leipzig to a solitary goal in two meetings and didn’t yield at all against Dortmund. Mbappe and Neymar, observe.
To state that Bayern have more noteworthy experience than PSG at this level is a genuine modest representation of the truth. Germany’s most designed club have just arrived at the European Cup or Champions League final on no less than 10 events, returning home with “Old Big Ears” five times: in 1974, 1975, 1976, 2001 and most as of late in 2013, in the wake of beating Dortmund in the first all-German confrontation at Wembley.
PSG, then again, will encounter confounding new statures at the Estadio da Luz. This is their first Champions League final, with their past best run taking them to the semi-finals in 1994/95. The French club have delighted in unobtrusive European achievement, lifting the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1996 and the Intertoto Cup in 2001, yet their mainland trophy haul pales to measure up to Bayern’s.
Seven years back, Jupp Heynckes’ free-scoring side proceeded to guarantee an uncommon high pitch of Bundesliga, Champions League, and DFB Cup, yet there is proof to recommend that Flick’s Class of 2019/20 are a much more imposing possibility as they attempt to repeat the accomplishment.
The two clubs have challenged eight times in this competition previously, with Paris barely leading the head-to-head 5-3, yet this will be their first winner-takes-all knockout experience. The French giants have endured a lot of despicable Champions League exits in the wake of floating through the group stage in recent years, and the gigantic pressure of attempting to land their first-since forever title could without much of a stretch incur significant damage, particularly if Bayern hold onto an early lead.
Like Davies, Flick was as yet a relative obscure this time a year back and has ascended to global noticeable quality since venturing into the Bayern tough situation in November. However, the 55-year-old has been engaged with football management for more than 25 years, sharpening abilities that permitted him to walk into one of the most high-profile jobs in the game and change Bayern from an injured monster into a rampaging behemoth presently playing the best football on the planet.
“We can give ourselves a pat on the back for choosing Hansi Flick last November and putting our faith in him,” purred Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, a two-time Ballon d’Or winner who knows quality when he sees it. “He’s brought back important values to the team and the club. We’re not only winning but playing highly attractive football. After great coaches like Louis van Gaal, Jupp Heynckes and Pep Guardiola, we’re heading into another successful era.”
High applause without a doubt, yet no not as much as Flick merits after reestablishing Bayern to their previous greatness – on the mainland stage at any rate. A splendid examiner with minute attention to detail and impressive man the management skills, the previous Bayern midfielder started coaching in the lower leagues before a stretch under Giovanni Trapattoni at Red Bull Salzburg. His enormous break at that point came in 2006, as he was designated Germany assistant coach under Joachim Löw.
Together, the two men took Die Mannschaft back to the summit of world football at the 2014 FIFA World Cup – and there was over a hint of Germany’s well known 7-1 win over hosts Brazil in Bayern’s 8-2 destruction of Barcelona.
Having been employed as a coach, an assistant coach, and a sporting director (with the DFB and Hoffenheim), Flick has held a shifted range of roles that appear to have set him up in a perfect world for the demands of Säbener Straße. There have been no obvious cobwebs as he has expected his first head coaching job since his spell with TSG in the mid-2000s – and if he leads Bayern to another high pitch on Sunday, you can ensure he won’t be going anyplace in a hurry.
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