A textbook counterattack, orchestrated by Kvara and finished off by the Ballon d’Or winner Dembélé. Then an orderly match, risking almost nothing – Safonov called upon to make an ordinary save per half, on Musiala and Olise – up to Kane’s goal in full stoppage time, and indeed building several clear-cut chances for the second goal. PSG managed it with ease, in short. Except that it was playing at the Allianz Arena. Facing it was Bayern Munich. And at stake was the Champions League final. The second consecutive one for the Parisians. The second under the brilliant mark of Luis Enrique.
“Now let’s give another gift to our fans”, says the coach in the post-match. “We came through a very tough semi-final, it is always difficult to face Bayern: they play at a high level, we both love to play the ball, to defend by pressing high. Today too we saw a good match and we played with intensity: this time the defences were better than the attacks, but the character we showed is the right one and demonstrates that we continue to be hungry”.
Here, then, the plot twist. After the fireworks of the Parc des Princes, with the spectacular 5-4 that will remain in the history of the competition – between those who extol its emotions and those who point the finger at the defensive snoozes: in any case people are talking about it –, everyone expected another match at frenzied rhythms, driven on by the impressive firepower of the two sides. After all the numbers reiterated this script: 174 seasonal goals for Bayern, 122 for PSG, before Wednesday evening. And there is no attacking trio, in today’s Europe, as prolific as that of the Bavarians: Kane, Diaz and Olise have already scored 101 goals between the three of them. A record-breaking avalanche – to be clear, the 122 of Messi-Suarez-Neymar, Barcelona 2014/15, remain unreachable but not so far off.
The unprecedented verdict is that PSG completely erased the script of the first leg. It put Bayern in check with a quick goal. Then, without curling up into a ball at all, it demonstrated not only that it knew how to manage – and at times impose, lowering it – the rhythm of the match. But that it could neutralise, without even suffering too much, the opponent’s attack: never as much as this evening bridled, ineffective, frustrated like the ball hurled into the net by Kane when by now it was too late. It is not that within the space of a week PSG has learned to defend to the death and Bayern has forgotten how to score, naturally. The answer to all this has a first name and a surname: Luis Enrique, that is pure transformism on a football pitch. By now in the pantheon of coaches, by necessity. Of yesterday, of today and of tomorrow.
The hand of the Spaniard is everywhere. In Marquinhos’s closing-downs. In Vitinha’s ball circulation. In the flares of Kvaratskhelia, ever more dominant even at the highest levels of world football. In the last two years PSG has demonstrated that it knows how to kill off the competition, to rewrite the annals of the Champions League final, to show itself sly, at times, committing the odd misstep in Ligue 1 or snubbing the Club World Cup. But here then, when it really counts, Chelsea takes eight goals in two matches. Liverpool can no longer manage to score. And Bayern is granted an overflowing illusion: as if to say, in the first leg we can even be bold, play it out over who has more in the final thirty metres. But it is still a risk: Hansi Flick at Barcelona cannot do without this approach – and the lack of plan Bs was fatal to him above all against Inter last year. Luis Enrique showed instead that when needed, when the stakes really burn, his team never loses its bearings. And it is very bad news above all for Arsenal: if another 5-0 in the final would seem improbable, given the granite-like defence of the Gunners, pas de problème. PSG can also win in the cynical way that Arteta likes so much. And that Luis Enrique knows how to make his own even at the home of the great Bayern.