It's been a long time since Bayern Munich have found themselves in this position. As recent as 2020, they held the record for most home wins in the Champions League and they're the current holders of most consecutive away wins, and yet find themselves traveling to Paris tonight for the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal clash, knowing this is a must-win situation.
They lost 3-2 at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany on April 7 in what is surely the European game of the season so far. It was a rematch of the 2019/20 Champions League final, and neutrals and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) fans will be asking for more of the same.
Les Parisiens had never been better in Europe. It felt like Mauricio Pochettino had finally got that multi-million euro squad playing as a cohesive unit - either that or Kylian Mbappe and Neymar had realized they need to stop playing for highlights and try involving the rest of the team, or they will never actually win the Champions League.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Neymar Jr. and Bayern Munich’s Leon Goretzka. /Getty
This past weekend PSG trounced RC Strasbourg 4-1 and, worryingly for Bayern, not only did they do that while resting Neymar, each of the four goals came from a different player: Mbappe opened the scoring then got followed by Pablo Sarabia, Moise Kean and Leandro Paredes. It shows they're in good form and up for it too.
On the other hand, Bayern had a tough time of it this weekend, drawing 1-1 against Union Berlin. The Germans intentionally started a handful of rookies to save the legs of certain players for tonight. Even with that reason/excuse, drawing with Bundesliga newcomers shows the cracks in the Bayern side are growing ever larger.
Without Robert Lewandowski and Serge Gnabry, goals are hard to come by no matter how much possession is held, and manager Hansi Flick's intense style stops working the moment it's executed at less than full strength.
The form book says the last time Bayern failed to score away from home was May 2019, so they should keep it competitive but, more so than that, PSG haven't won a second leg in the Champions League in a decade and that include three games in which they start with a larger advantage. It's likely to be a wild game tonight. Bayern never give up without a fight and PSG's one away goal advantage isn't enough for them to be comfortable.
[Header: Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe and Bayern Munich’s Niklas Sule compete for the ball. /Getty]