Champions League review: a stone-cold classic, Díaz’s perfect timing and a defensive puritan

The first leg of the semi-finals produced a nine-goal thriller and a tense evening in Madrid. Next week’s matches are set to be a treat

Football’s role as a leading hot-take commodity was taken to the nth degree after Tuesday’s nine-goal slugfest between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris. Best game ever? What happened to the lost art of defending? Proof that France and Germany’s dominant clubs enjoy the luxury of not being challenged in their domestic leagues so they can keep their powder dry for the latter stages of the Champions League? Proof that the best attackers in Europe are sequestered at PSG and Bayern Munich? All of the above may well be true.

The debate will continue until next Wednesday’s second leg in Munich. Those who said it was the competition’s best ever semi-final – it had the most goals of any 90-minute match in the Champions League last-four – forgot previous contenders. “The best match I have ever coached,” said Luis Enrique. The PSG coach omitted to mention La Remontada of 2017, when his Barcelona team won 6-1 at the Camp Nou to complete the greatest comeback of all. And how about last season’s 7-6 semi-final double-header when Inter edged Barça? Only when the second leg delivers the same excitement can accusations of recency bias be dismissed.

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