This is a Champions League Final like no other. For the very first time in history, the Champions League final will be contested by teams from Germany and France. And what’s more, the Semifinals were the same.
For the very first time in history, the champions league quarter finals and semi-finals were one legged ties.
For the very first time in history, fans are not allowed into the stadiums to support their various teams.
For the very first time in history, the Champions league took place in one City from the quarters onwards.
It has been a very difficult year for fans all around the world brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Clubs have been hugely affected too but On Sunday evening, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain would be expected to entertain people in what’s the perfect Final anyone could’ve wished for.
Paris Saint-Germain brushed RB Leipzig – who had an impressive tournament in only their second appearance in the Champions League – aside 3-nil to book their place in the final. Bayern Munich did same to Lyon.
Both teams have long waited for this opportunity too.
Bayern Munich haven’t won the Champions League since 2013, when they defeated Bundesliga rivals, Borussia Dortmund to lift the trophy in a raucous Wembley Stadium.
It was also the last.
The Bundesliga have only been won by one team since 2013 and I leave you to guess what team that is.
They’ve reached the Semi finals of the CL four times since that time, three in a row between 2014 and 2016. On each occasion losing to a Spanish team, twice to Real Madrid and once each to Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. On three of those occasions, the the that defeated Bayern Munich went on to win the Champions League so they must’ve had feelings of what might have been.
PSG themselves have never reached the final, the closest they’ve gone to lifting the trophy was a semifinal in the early 90’s.
Since their takeover in 2011, they, like Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, have completely dominated the French Ligue 1, winning 8 out of 9 titles. They’ve also won the treble 5 times in that time, the domestic treble of course.
Over 1 billion euros have been spent on transfers. Some have been high profile signings. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the first superstar to arrive, followed Edison Cavani, Angel Di Maria, and then in 2017, PSG went mad in the transfer market when they lured Neymar from Barcelona in a deal worth €222 million. Mbappe would follow in the same summer, an €180 million signing from Monaco.
Both players have only made the Ligue 1 title more of a formality than a necessity. It is the Champions League that they always wanted to cement their place as a European superpower. Yet they had never got further than the round of 16 since these arrivals.
Neymar had hardly kept fit and was sorely missed in the return leg of the 2018 round of 16 fixture in which they lost 3:1 at home to a Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Real Madrid.
2019 saw them get a very easy draw on paper against Manchester United in which they made light work of at Old Trafford with a 2:0. They’d then capitulate at Parc Des Princes when a a United side missing multiple first team players would turn it aroy d and win 3:1 in the French capital.
It looked like it would be same old story for PSG when they trailed 1:0 to Atalanta with only a mute of normal time. But one of their not superstar signings in Choupo-Moting rose up to the occasion and they scored two goals in two minutes to qualify.
So, of course it would be a keenly contested Final. Goals are expected from both teams. Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain are the highest and second highest scoring teams in the tournament this season with 42 and 25 goals respectively.
The ease with which Bayern Munich reached the final makes them slight favourites. They have won each and every game en route to this final and they’ve hammered notable teams too. Spurs were beaten 7:2 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium while Barcelona were destroyed 8:2 in the quarter finals.
Paris Saint-Germain have had impressive games of their own. They defeated Real Madrid 3:0 at home in the first group stage game and that’s where they started dreaming of this. They also managed to turn around a 2:1 first leg deficit to win 2:0 and advance at the expense of Dortmund at the round of 16 stage.
This is a game everyone will be looking out for, a game everyone will be hoping to be entertained by after the boring 2019 final between Liverpool and Spurs.
Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain would be expected to make it a memorable Final for fans.
Make sure you don’t miss it.
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