PARIS (AP) — “You thought you’d seen everything about soccer? You’ve never seen a match like this!”
This sentence, published in the German news magazine Der Spiegel, was just one of many attempts to sum up the series of actions taking place across Europe. Paris Saint-Germain beat Bayern Munich 5-4 In the first leg of the Champions League final.
The Spanish newspaper As wrote, “This is a match that will go down in history.”
In the UK, The Sun newspaper called it “the game of the century”.
In France, former defender Vicente Lizarazu, who won the 1998 World Cup with France and the 2001 Champions League with Bayern, was particularly impressed by the first half. PSG led 3-2 at half-time, making it the first Champions League semi-final to score five goals before half-time.
“It was like boxing,” Lizarazu said. “We both took punches and were able to respond. The intensity was unbelievable.”
It wasn’t just retired players who were paying attention. Manchester City striker Erling Haaland was also full of praise, posting a photo from the match on social media with the caption: “This is football.”
PSG has scored 43 goals in this season’s Champions League. Only Barcelona achieved more goals in a season, with 45 goals in 1999-2000.
“We’ll see how it goes, but with so much talent anything can happen,” Lizaraz said, looking ahead to next week’s second leg in Munich.
However, despite showing great attacking quality, some were less impressed with his defensive side.
“Ask the goalkeepers if they are happy,” former Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf told Amazon Prime. “We need balance. I’m all for playing attacking football when we have the ball, but we also need a balanced defense.”
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AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
