Kyler blow: It’s Mbappe show in Munich snow
Kylian Mbappe scored twice to lead Paris Saint-Germain to a 3-2 win at defending champions Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League football quarterfinal yesterday.
Mbappe was a constant threat while Neymar had two assists as the French champions responded to their 1-0 loss to Bayern in last year’s final by seizing the advantage going into the second leg in Paris next week.
Marquinhos scored the other goal as the visitors went 2-0 up inside the first half hour, but the PSG captain went off injured shortly afterward and Bayern responded through headers from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Thomas Muller.
Mbappe sealed the win with his eighth goal of the competition in the 68th. The visitors had four shots on target.
“I think it was efficiency. We managed to score with almost all of our opportunities, and we managed to defend well as a team, even if it’s difficult against Bayern Munich,” Mbappe said.
Bayern had 31 efforts at goal and clearly missed Robert Lewandowski’s accuracy. The Poland star is the Bundesliga’s top scorer with 35 goals in 25 appearances but he returned from the international break with a knee injury. Bayern were also without forward Serge Gnabry because of a positive Covid-19 test.
“Unfortunately it wasn’t as decisive in front of goal as we normally are,” said Bayern coach Hansi Flick after his first Champions League defeat since taking over in November 2019. “The efficiency wasn’t good. But still I’m very satisfied with the performance of the team, the way they played.”
“If it had been 5-3 or 6-3 for us, no one could have complained based on all these chances,” Muller said. “If we take the performance we showed and bring it to the pitch in Paris, then we’ll get the goal chances again to reach the semifinals.”
In yesterday’s other quarter-final, Chelsea beat Porto 2-0 in a game played in Seville, Spain, because of travel restrictions.
Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell scored their first Champions League goals to give Chelsea a great chance of making it to the semifinals for the first time in seven years.
Mount scored after a nice turn past a defender at the edge of the area in the 32nd minute and Chilwell added the second following a blunder by Porto’s Jesus Corona in the 85th. The goals came off only three attempts on target by Chelsea.
“It is difficult to accept this result because we had eight shots in the first half to their one,” Porto midfielder Marko Grujic said. “We showed that we have quality and in the second leg we’ll try to turn the tie.”
Porto finished the game with twice as many attempts as Chelsea, 12-6, but struggled to get close to the goal. Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy became the first goalkeeper to keep seven Champions League clean sheets this season.
“It was a tough match against a strong Porto side,” Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel said. “There were many moments where we suffered, but we accepted it. That’s the way it is at this stage. The spirit was good and it’s an excellent result.”