10 reasons why PSG 5-4 Bayern was the most fun Champions League game ever

The best Champions League match ever? The best football match ever?

Paris Saint-Germain 5-4 Bayern Munich was a once-watched, never-forgotten sporting spectacle featuring the kind of thrilling end-to-end football that every fan of the sport surely wants to watch.

With no definitive result at the end of it – there is a still a second leg to come next week – it may not quite take the claim of the greatest Champions League game of all time, but it certainly felt up there with the most enjoyable, the most thrilling and the most fun matches that the competition has ever witnessed.

Here are 10 reasons why…

History was made

Nine goals in one match made this the highest scoring Champions League semi-final match ever.

Five goals in the first half were also a record. You felt like you were witnessing history and the stats backed it up. If they score five more between them next week they’ll break the two-legged semi record for goals (currently jointly held by Inter Milan 7-6 Barcelona from last year and Liverpool’s 7-6 victory over Roma in 2018).

Even the two coaches, PSG’s Luis Enrique and Bayern’s Vincent Kompany, couldn’t quite believe what they had seen.

Two relentless attack-minded teams (who weren’t tired)

This was two sides at the peak of their powers, with pretty much their best XIs on show and, with their domestic titles either already won in Bayern’s case or close to being won in PSG’s case (they are six points clear in Ligue 1), both had a freshness and a vitality that other sides perhaps can’t offer at this time of the season.

However, it was their reflective attitudes to playing which made this so incredibly enjoyable. They both approached the tie with such enormous self-belief, but also the courage to go at each other at will, knowing it was a high-risk approach that would leave them vulnerable defensively.

This was exactly how football should be played, even if they were both probably a little too cavalier at times.

Michael Olise drills in his goal (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

When Bayern had just gone 4-2 down in the 56th minute, they embarked on an attack with seven players. Seven.

Konrad Laimer’s pass went astray, PSG went up the other end and, in a counter that was initially two-on-two, scored their fifth through Ousmane Dembele.

But both teams were ‘guilty’. For the final goal of the night, PSG left Luis Diaz alone with Marquinhos despite the fact they were 5-3 up. Harry Kane dinked a beautiful pass to Diaz who steadied himself before finding a great finish. This kind of thing happened all night in a game played at a breathtaking pace.

There was so much happening that some chances were almost missed by broadcasters who were showing replays of something that had happened seconds earlier. It was actually exhausting to watch.

Olise is a dream…

Michael Olise continued his ascent to the top of the sport with a magnificent display on one of the biggest stages of all.

In the first half in particular he was a slalom skiing delight, twisting left and right and befuddling every PSG defender who had the misfortune of being isolated one-on-one against him.

Michael Olise was irrepressible for Bayern (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

His goal to make it 2-2 was a stunner – he was tightly surrounded by three players but caught keeper Matvei Safonov off-balance with a devastating finish – but his brilliance barely ebbed all evening. The World Cup could be his playground this summer.

… and so is Kvaratskhelia

The only player to rival Olise was Kvaratskhelia, who scored twice and produced some breathtaking wing play.

His first goal in particular, yes featured some whiffy defending from Josip Stanisic, but the way he cut inside and found the side netting in the far corner was sublime.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was unstoppable for PSG (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

It had a refereeing controversy

VAR controversy, sure, which is never a fun thing, but PSG’s penalty to go 4-2 up was a heated moment and every great game needs one of those.

Dembele’s cross skimmed off Alphonso Davies’ thigh (he was about a yard away from the Frenchman) and deflected onto his arm, which was by his side. A farcical penalty decision, if truth be told, and one criticised by The Athletic’s own Graham Scott, who said it was a “really poor call”.

Alphonso Davies was punished for this handball (Prime Sport)

It proved you can Playstation football in big games

On the day that Jose Mourinho was linked with a return to Real Madrid, this was the perfect example for how top level European clubs with lots of money should build their football teams.

Full credit to both managers for setting them up this way, to take advantage of the outrageous skill levels both attacks possess.

This was as good as the sport gets, in terms of ambitious, stylish, quick, technically-proficient, entertaining football.

It felt like Playstation football. There was a period midway through the first half when it resembled basketball… you try and score, then we’ll try and score. End to end to end.

There were some awful misses by brilliant players

It was a remarkable, goal-laden match with plenty of clinical shooting — PSG only had five shots on target and scored with all five, while Bayern scored with four of their eight shots on target.

But, strangely, it also featured plenty of mistakes. And it’s those cute little flaws that keep you interested.

Dembele’s miss at 1-1 when, having been put clean through on goal, he opened up his right foot and shanked it well wide of the far post, was the worst of the lot. But honestly, it could and should have been 7-6 given the chances a few players spurned.

Even in the closing minutes, Senny Mayulu hit the post for PSG and then with seven seconds left of stoppage time a Joshua Kimmich header was cleared off the line by Willian Pacho.

It was the antidote to the boring Premier League

You couldn’t help but think that there isn’t a single Premier League fixture right now capable of producing a match anywhere near this level of quality.

No, there weren’t any long throws. And while Harry Kane scored his obligatory penalty (his 54th goal of a frankly silly season), there was only one goal from a corner.

Harry Kane, inevitably, was on the score sheet (Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images)

The Parc des Princes noise was incessant

A great game needs a great setting and Paris delivered it and more.

From the vast tifos that covered half the stadium before kick-off, to the red flares that blazed in the stands after PSG’s goals, it was all played out in a thunderous atmosphere.

PSG’s ultras and Bayern’s away end didn’t stop singing all night; and Munich will every bit as cacophonous.

PSG fans unveil a huge tifo before kick-off (S. Mellar/FC Bayern via Getty Images)

There are another 90 minutes (or more) next week

There is probably a school of thought that this should have been the final, but surely in a one-off final at a neutral venue they wouldn’t have been this carefree?

Thankfully we get another 90 minutes, at least, next Wednesday night. Do not make any plans.