On Tuesday night, Bayern Munich laid down a marker for the rest of Europe by defying the odds at the Parc des Princes Stadium on Tuesday. The Bundesliga champions clinched a 2-1 victory against the European Champions.
In the first half, the Champions of Germany were simply too good for PSG with Luis Diaz leading the charge. The 28-year-old Colombian was the architect of the home team’s demise. He opened the scoring for Bayern in the 4th minute of play and doubled the advantage just past the half-hour mark.
However, in the added time of the first half, alarm bells went off in the Bayern camp when Diaz, who had initially been shown a yellow card for a foul on Achraf Hakimi, was eventually given his marching orders after VAR intervention, which upgraded the card to red.
Amazingly, despite playing a man down for more than 45 minutes, Bayern only conceded once in the second half, which was good enough for the win. Let’s take a look at some key takeaways from Tuesday’s improbable victory over PSG.
A Vincent Kompany coached team can play any style of football
So far this season, Bayern Munich have been dominating games by playing a scintillating brand of attacking football. A key component of their domination has been the pressing and counter-pressing system, which Vincent Kompany has deployed to suffocate the opposition.
For the first 45-odd minutes on Tuesday, the mighty PSG appeared to be just another victim of the Bayern press as the visitors were creating chances at will.
However, that all changed when the Bavarian giants were reduced to ten men. With that being the case, it would have been no surprise if the home team managed to turn the game around in the second half. However, after the half-time interval, Kompany and his men showed that resolute defending is not beyond them when needed, holding out for the 2-1 victory.
With the victory in Paris having been achieved under such difficult circumstances, Bayern answered the question what would happen when they face one of the of Europe’s best. Additionally, they also showed that they can defend at a high level when the circumstances call for it. However, their preference remains playing entertaining and attacking beautiful football. Football purists and neutrals should be happy to sit back and enjoy what this team currently brings to the world of football.