Bayern Munich's journey to the Champions League title required “brutal” mental strength and focus during a rollercoaster season that saw a major team overhaul.
Sunday's 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain not only clinched a sixth European crown for Bayern, it also saw them become the first team to win all of their Champions League matches in a season.
THEY’VE DONE IT!
Ander Herrera, the 31-year-old midfielder who arrived at PSG last summer from Manchester United on a free transfer, knows a thing or two about the French club’s struggle for a paradigm shift following one ignominious European exit after another in recent years.
He was, after all, a part of the United team that unceremoniously dumped PSG out of the Champions League in the Round of 16 last season.
The 2019-20 UEFA Champions League final was a nerve-racking, back-and-forth contest that would’ve been greatly improved by both a PSG goal and fans in the stands. While it’s impossible to understand what happened to the finishing abilities of Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Ángel Di María in Lisbon, we all know exactly why supporters weren’t allowed inside Estádio da Luz.
Bayern Munich’s 1-0 victory over PSG in Sunday’s Champions League final brought a close to some long-drawn-out storylines that’ll largely return in 58 days time with the start of next season’s group stage.
With all the money spent by Paris Saint-Germain on this lavish, decade-long Champions League project, it’s a sensational piece of irony that Bayern Munich’s game-winning goal in Sunday’s final was scored by a PSG youth product, the Parisian Kingsley Coman.
Monaco rallied from two goals down to salvage a point in a 2-2 draw at home to Reims in their first game under new coach Nico Kovac in Ligue 1 on Sunday.
Hoping to find some stability after hiring five coaches in two years, Monaco found themselves trailing 2-0 after 21 minutes following goals by Boulaye Dia and El Bilal Toure.
But Axel Disasi and Benoit Badiashile, who both had a catastrophic start in central defense, scored either side of the interval as Monaco stepped up a gear.
Former England captain Wayne Rooney believes Paris Saint-Germain has the speed and skill to exploit Bayern Munich's high defensive line in Sunday's Champions League final and punish them in a way Lyon could not.
Lyon forwards Memphis Depay and Karl Toko Ekambi missed gilt-edged opportunities in the opening 16 minutes of a 3-0 defeat to Bayern in the semifinal on Wednesday and Rooney has warned that PSG's front three of Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Ángel Di María will not be so wasteful.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says the single-game knockout format, used in the Champions League this year from the quarterfinal onwards, has produced more exciting football than the usual two-legged games and could be revisited in the future.
The format was changed in order to allow the competition to be completed in a shorter time-span after the COVID-19 pandemic halted play for several months across Europe in March.
Eight clubs headed to Lisbon and the final will be contested later on Sunday, pitting Bayern Munich against Paris St Germain.
LISBON — The biggest game in club football takes place in the Portuguese capital on Sunday, but walking around the cobbled streets of the city you could be forgiven for being oblivious to the impending Champions League final.
A giant replica of the European Cup at the Rossio square is the only clear sign of the big game that will take place across the city at the Estadio da Luz, between Bayern Munich and Paris-Saint Germain.
A Europa League qualifier between FC Prishtina and Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar, postponed once after eight Prishtina players tested positive for the novel coronavirus, was called off again on Saturday when the Kosovan side failed to take to the pitch.
Lincoln tweeted a picture of their players and match officials waiting on the pitch in Gibraltar before issuing a statement saying the preliminary-round qualifier had been cancelled.