Who has the edge in the 2020 Champions League final between PSG and Bayern Munich ?
Answers
Kylian Mbappe's double and a goal from skipper Marquinhos guided Paris Saint-Germain to a 3-2 away win over Bayern Munich in a 2020-21 UEFA Champions League last-eight first leg encounter.
Answer:
Explanation:
The 2020 UEFA Champions League finals is bound to go down in history records as one of the most puzzling finals ever. The two teams that made it were not even anywhere near what soccer fans would have imagined.
A lot of people fancied a team like Manchester City playing Atletico Madrid or even Liverpool in the finals but that never came to see the light of day.
What instead happened was that two French teams as well as two German teams made it to the Semi finals with one French side in the form of PSG emerging victorious and another German side in the form of Bayern also having a topsy — turvy win despite making it 3–0 against Lyon. Ironically, the two teams that made it to the final all have German coaches and this has brought about serious questions concerning whether the era of Spanish coaches is over and the one which we are in is the modern age of pressing football.
The finals
The final match is cast in stone, and it's PSG vs Bayern Munich. As usual, a lot of people usually like the underdog story quite a lot in football. Going into the finals, it's quite understandable that a lot of people would relish the thought of PSG winning the Champions League. But I want to point out that if PSG are to strike gold, it would be more of accident than by design.
Bayern for sure have the upper hand and I would give them a 55 percent chance as compared to PSG's 45 percent chance because:
PSG had a very difficult journey in reaching the finals. They did manage to get to the finals but not with the relative ease that Bayern Munich had managed to. This is because on their road to the finals, they had to come from behind against opponents such as in their 2–1 win against Atalanta as well as 2–0 win against Dortmund. Bayern Munich on the other hand didn't have a difficult journey on the way to the finals against any opponent. The only team that came close to causing Bayern Munich problems was Lyon, but even against Lyon,they still emerged 3–0 winners. What's still more surprising is the fact that Flick has never failed to play a high offensive line against any team he has faced so far. This then brings the serious question about the chances PSG really have against a Bayern Munich side which even on its bad day manages to score 3 goals against a stubborn team like Lyon.
PSG on a greater part also tend to lack a big offensive threat outside the trio of Mbappe, Neymar and Di Maria. We could use the example of Juan Bernat who despite scoring a goal against RB Leipzig in the semi finals, he and Thilo Kehrer still seemed to lack offensive quality despite being positioned very high the pitch. The game against Atalanta as well as against Dortmund showed that. Infact Kehrer hasn't yet even made a single assist in all the 19 games which he has played in all competitions so far this year.
PSG's defence is also slow and we have observed that a couple of times when they play in this competition. This is the same defence that they would rely on to contain Bayern Munich's fast attackers like Gnabry, Perisic and Davies and it's really going to be tough for them if they play Bayern. As with the match against RB Leipzig and even against Dortmund we really saw that the defenders really took their time and tried to slow down Leipzig by circulating the ball in their own half for sometime. The only thing that this implies is that PSG's defence can easily be exploited especially when Gnabry and Lewandowski are still on form given that Bayern also have the best goal ratio of 4.2 in the Champions League.
PSG would also likely get clear cut opportunities especially when Alphonso Davies joins Bayern Munich attacks forward. This would open up opportunities for fast breakthroughs by Mbappe or Di Maria, but there's no way Mbappe they would be able to outrun Davies. Davies recovery pace is just a different thing altogether regardless of how you look at it.