In the end, FC Bayern suffered a bitter 3-2 loss in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain. Coach Hansi Flick’s team produced a strong performance, and were the dominant team for long stretches (outshooting their opponents by 31 shots to 6 shots), but in the end the Bavarian side fell to defeat. “The defeat was unfortunate. We dominated the game. Unfortunately, we were not ruthless enough in front of goal,” Flick said afterwards. The Bavarians, however, were in fighting spirit looking ahead to next week’s second leg. “We are convinced we can progress,” said Thomas Müller. Reaction from both camps here.
Reaction from the Bayern camp:
Hansi Flick: “The defeat was unfortunate. PSG played with great efficiency and scored three goals from very few chances. We dominated the game, had 31 shots on goal. The way we played was impressive. Unfortunately, we were not clinical and efficient enough in front of goal. The team fought for 90 minutes on the pitch, never gave up. We still have a game in Paris and we will do everything to turn that into a positive result. We want to get to the semifinals, and today’s result doesn’t change that.”
Thomas Müller: “We missed a lot of chances today. We need to score a lot more goals, and if it ends 5-3, 6-3, nobody complains. We shot ourselves in the foot. Now we have to come from behind. If we showed the killer instinct that we often show, everything would look different. We don’t need to discuss the goals we conceded. Today we left far too much to chance. Now our full focus is on the second leg. If we do like we did today, we’ll get as many chances as we did today. If we take advantage of those chances, we’ll make it through to the semi-finals. We’re convinced we can progress.”
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting: “We didn’t score enough goals and conceded too many. Another day we score five or six. That’s tough to take. It was a great fight. It’s a shame we didn’t reward ourselves. We came back well. It’s not over yet. In a week, we’ll have a chance to set the record straight. We played well and dominated.”
Reaction from the PSG camp:
Mauricio Pochettino (Paris Saint-Germain head coach): “The team played very well today. We went on the counterattack and were incredibly clinical. To score three goals against such a good team is enormously difficult. So a big congratulation to my players. Our plan worked, but we also had that necessary slice of luck. It’s a very positive result, even though everything is still wide open. We have to give our all on Tuesday.”
Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain): “It was efficiency of the two sides that tipped the balance. We converted all our chances and of course we were a bit lucky at the other end because Bayern had a lot of chances.”
Julian Draxler (Paris Saint-Germain): “We scored the goals at the right times. Bayern had more of the game. We were very effective up front. It was already very difficult and we were chasing back a lot. But we have the quality to score the goals up front. It was a good first step. But you saw Bayern’s quality. It will be a very tough second leg.”
The match report:
