The conclusion of the Champions League campaign marked Bayern Munich as the champions of Europe as they defeated Paris Saint Germain winning their sixth European championship. The match was a highly anticipated competitive match with the expectation from the game was that one of high scoring one, however, it was a single goal from Coman that decided the winners of the night. The Bayern side made their way to the finals with their dominating gameplay with high pressing and promising attacks from the wing, the PSG side, on the other hand, was more dependent on their speed and flair to win the matches to make way to the finals. In terms of experience, it was the Bayern side that had an advantage over the PSG side as the prior has eleven UCL final appearance whereas for the latter it was their first UCL finals.
The game which was initially scheduled to be played in Istanbul was shifted to Lisbon due to the whole global impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. The game was dominated by the Bayern side from the first minute of the kick-off as they were playing with a high line defense in the initial minutes of the game.
The momentum shifted towards the PSG side after the initial fifteen minutes as Neymar and Mbappe started displaying their flair and elegance, it was Neymar in the seventeenth minute who came close to scoring as Neuer made an excellent double save to deny the Brazilian. It was in the twenty-second minute that Lewandowski took one touch to set up an elegant shot to beat Keylor Navas only to be denied by the goalpost.
Lewandowski came close to scoring from Gnarby’s cross as he headed the ball towards the goal, forcing Navas to make an excellent reflex save. The game was balanced until the 45th minute when PSG displayed an excellent passing routine with Mbappe and Herrera completing an excellent one-two inside the Bayern box, with Mbappe having only Neuer to beat strikes the ball straight into his hands. Within a minute of this attack, Bayern almost won a penalty which was denied by the Referee, the tackle was not there and it was Coman who had lost his footing.
The second half started with a lot of physical tussle as both the sides looked for an opportunity to give their side a lead, it eventually lead to the booking of Serge Gnabry as he fouled Neymar tripping him off the ground the PSG midfielder was also booked as he reacted aggressively towards Gnabry for the tackle by the Bayern Player.
The second half was more of a stop-start game as continuous fouls were committed by both sides with Bayern’s Sule being yellow carded for a tackle from behind on Di Maria in the 56th minute. It was the 59th minute of the match that decided the winner of the night as Joshua Kimmich chipped a loose through the ball at the edge of the six-yard box where Coman was standing unmarked with Kehrer marking two players at the same time, it was Coman who headed the ball into the bottom right corner beating the PSG keeper Navas.
The Bayern side dominated the game after the goal so boldly that PSG hardly got any chances to exploit the Bayern defense in the last quarter of the second half. The hopes of PSG were dilapidating as Tuchel made Choupo-Moting come in for Di Maria, he had helped PSG overcome Atlanta in the Quarters but failed to do any harm in the finals. With the final whistle, Bayern was Champions for the Sixth time in their club history only behind Real Madrid and at level with Liverpool and AC Milan.
With the conclusion of the Champions League, the campaign of 2019-2020 has come to an end with a lot of players on both sides having their future in question. Thiago Silva was the first to disclose that it was his last match for the PSG side as he is reportedly the transfer target for Chelsea who is in search of Luiz’s replacement since the latter joined Arsenal last season. Thiago Alcantara is another player whose future is in doubt with the Liverpool side interested to sign the Spaniard for an alleged 30 million euros. The transfer windows have opened and there are going to be changed in the squads before the next season is kicked off, will a new side be able to win the Champions League next season or will it be once again a previous winner just improving their trophy cabinet tally.
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