French Paris Saint-Germain is playing its “season” match on Wednesday at Bayern Munich in the second leg of the Champions League final in football, looking to overturn its loss back in its own backyard and relying on the good “formation” of its attacking star, Kylian Mbappe.
And the French champion must outperform the Bavarian team, to overturn its loss in the first leg with the goal of its former player, Kingsley Coman, in order not to be eliminated again in the final price round, similar to last year when it was bid farewell to the Spanish champion, Real Madrid.
After being excluded from the local cup competition in front of its rivals Marseille, the Qatari-owned team will remain in the local league arena, as it leads by a comfortable margin from Marseille, if it bids farewell on Wednesday from the first continental competition that it has been chasing after for more than a decade. An exclusion will deepen the pressure on his coach, Christophe Galtier, who will come this season with Portuguese sports director Luis Campos.
Mbappe, the top scorer of the Qatar World Cup, dreams of giving Saint-Germain the first continental title, an achievement that only Marseille in France could achieve in the early nineties of the last century.
Mbappe was not in good shape when he lost the 2020 final against Bayern with Koeman’s goal as well, but he is waiting for the opportunity to carry his team on his shoulders on Wednesday, in the absence of his Brazilian colleague Neymar, whose team announced on Monday that he will be absent for three or four months due to surgery on his ankle.
Saint-Germain partially raised his spirits after losing the Lisbon final, by eliminating Bayern from the 2021 quarter-finals thanks to a double from Mbappe in the first leg, and he is counting on the deadly passes of his fellow Argentine world champion Lionel Messi, who previously knew glory with Barcelona.
And while the Moroccan international, Ashraf Hakimi, was accused of raping a woman, he made up for three losses in a row, by winning three times, in which Mbappe scored five goals and two assists.
Choupo-Moting and Coman
On the other hand, Bayern is going through a good period, with the appetite for scoring opening up for its Cameroonian striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who scored four goals in the last seven matches and five from the brilliant Koeman, knowing that the last two previously carried the colors of Saint Germain.
The team, which is engaged in a fierce battle with Borussia Dortmund for the top spot in the “Bundesliga” that it dominated in the last decade, strengthened its ranks with Senegalese striker Sadio Mane and the heart of the Dutch defense, Matthijs de Ligt, to regain the continental title.
His young coach, Julian Nagelsmann, realizes that the early exit from the continental competition, which he won the title 6 times, will not be compensated for by the local coronation, despite the fierce competition with Dortmund, who is equal to him in the number of points.
And after his difficult victory over Stuttgart on Saturday (2-1), Nagelsmann (35 years) hoped that “the performance and style of our match (against Saint-Germain)” would be judged, and not just “the result.”
He closed the door to the dressing rooms for his players, stressing the importance of the match against Saint-Germain, “I told them that we will play a very important match on Wednesday, and we have to play hard.”
He continued, “Their team is difficult and they are among the strongest in Europe.”
Bayern was eliminated only once in the last decade before the quarter-finals (in 2019 against Liverpool, England), noting that it is the third team in terms of coronation behind Real Madrid (14) and AC Milan (7).
Conte’s return
In a match between two teams fighting to qualify for the Champions League next season, Tottenham is looking to overturn its loss in the first leg at Milan, Italy, with a goal.
The “Lombardy” team suffered a surprising loss against Fiorentina in the domestic league, to equal with Roma in fifth place. As for Tottenham, it fell to Wolverhampton, and Liverpool fifth, close to three points from it, with a postponed match.
Milan coach Stefano Pioli is counting on his Portuguese striker, Rafael Liao, to regain his previous levels, to save his season, as he is 18 points away from leaders Napoli, who are heading towards their first title in the domestic league in more than three decades.
On the other hand, the Italian Anthony Conte returns to the Tottenham seat, in light of speculation about his continuation with Tottenham, who is experiencing a volatile season.
Conte missed four matches for Tottenham after undergoing gallbladder removal surgery in Italy, including losing to Sheffield United from the second level 0-1 in the fifth round of the Cup competition.
Tottenham has not won a title since 2008, and even the arrival of a coach like Conte has not yet succeeded in bringing it back to the track.
While Conte questioned club president Daniel Levy’s transfer policy, the 53-year-old was criticized by fans for his conservative tactics and surprising changes.
And the team north of the capital needs to raise its spirits before the response meeting against Milan, who snatched an important victory, with an early goal by Spaniard Ibrahim Diaz in the first leg at the “San Siro” stadium.
Welshman Ben Davies, Tottenham’s back, explained the importance of Conte’s return to the bench: “He has been away for a while, but we have a big game on Wednesday and it is important for him to be with us.”
As for his assistant Christian Stellini, who played his role in his absence, he said: “Antonio will be a strong push for us until the end of the season. The team showed Antonio that he is alive. They want to win and control the matches.”
