Nine-man PSG hold off Bayern Munich to reach Club World Cup semi-finals | Club World Cup 2025

PSG was a goal and two men downstairs, deep in the time to stop, when they made a last round of hundreds here. Suddenly, as had happened so many times in an afternoon breathless in Atlanta, the field had opened and the footballer flew into space. They should have been exhausted, barely able to move, but he came out of Vittinha in the middle, Ousmane Dembélé sprinting next. He broke the crossbar with the first blow, but that has not yet done; Achraf Hakimi recovered possession, dribbling three men and installed Dembélé to score the goal that ended.

Actually, finished It may not be the word because it was the 96th minute, there was still time for Bayern to give them a penalty, then removed. But after Desiré Doué obtained the opening of 78 minutes, Dembélé had obtained the passage from PSG to the semi-final of the Club World Cup. Bayern had come out. Worse, they had seen Jamal Musiala fend back at halftime, having undergone a horrible ankle broken after a challenge by Gianluigi Donnarumma who, seeing the dark view of the foot of his opponent in the face of the wrong sense, had been left to the tears.

It had given a bitter and sad note to a breathtaking and brilliant game, a match of joy and enthusiasm in which the players had given generously, and the one who had been opened at the end. Vincent Kompany had said he could predict what was going to happen, Luis Enrique seemed to agree, and it turned out that they were right. We will have less ball than normal, said the PSG coach; We will also be, said the director of Bayern. Kompany, after all, had described them as teams with “extreme principles”, and that was: a game defined by intensity and intention, an open and often frantic match, from Rob and Rob back where the roars of the stands had a little of the He’s behind you About them.

The passes were moved, the ball lost and won again, but not for no lack of quality – completely the opposite – but the speed at which everything was going on. They had only played three minutes when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia stole Michael Olise for gifted to shoot wide, and only four when Hakimi – the right back, remember – almost stolen from Josip Stanisic on the edge of his own box of six yards. If that was what they predicted, it was a riot, shots exchanged. Not like heavy goods vehicles, but something faster, combinations too quickly to see coming, a kind of organized chaos.

In 18 minutes, a superb work by Bradley Barcola quickly released Hakimi on the right and he rushed to deliver a deep ball to the distant post, where Kvaratskhelia hit the lateral net. Nineteen seconds later, there was another roar because it seemed that Kingsley Coman was going to escape the other end. PSG closed this quickly, but the speed at which it had occurred, going from an attack to another, was an image of a frantic half. At halftime, the completion of the PSG pass was 77%, well below their normal levels.

Their threat remained. Bayern did it too. Barcola has once again arrived on the left to open the field, looking to the left or so that Kvaratskhelia Coure, and when the ball has returned, Fabián Ruiz has returned the best chance of the game so far. At the other end, Donnarumma plunged to save from olise, then, back to this one, Manuel Neuer produced a shiny stop at the feet of Kvaratskhelia, which had led to the box of six yards.

Two strong hands had denied two goals and another followed. Harry Kane made his way in front of Willian Pacho and set his neck to head to a Coman cross when Donnarumma stopped Aleksandar Pavlovic – a stop made all the more impressive the fact that he had not been a blow but a delivery leaning on the post. Dayot Upamecano then headed in what could have been the opener, but the flag was in place, the PSG holding the line while the free kick entered and catch it and five others offside.

It was brilliant, then just at halftime, it went badly. By diving to reach a ball by signature, Donnarumma went through Musiala, whose left ankle turned, apparently broken and dislocated. Musiala was left in a heap in the area, a crowd gathering around him soon; The goalkeeper was left near tears, squatting by his line with a lost look. As they left, he didn’t know where to go. In the second half, he was hué when he came into contact with the ball; Some supporters blamed him, even if his opponents did not do so.

PSG should have taken the lead at the start of the second half when Barcola ran clearly, released by Kvaratskhelia, but by opening his body to take the shooting, Neuer had an overview of his intentions and made another extremely impressive backup. However, playing the Bayern path, if that meant something, given the speed with which everything could change, the clarity of a moment in chaos. An example: on time, Olise wrapped a blow that Neuer gathered; Almost immediately, a scandalous diagonal of 70 yards of Nuno Mendes put gifted to Goué and beyond Konrad Laimer to flash a cross through the box of six yards.

Olise then had the best chance so far but, against Donnarumma, has raised his shot on the nearby post. With 20 minutes to play, came uplift and immediately left Olise in his dust, screaming the wing. He could mark two when a Neuer hit a routine pass directly to Kvaratskhelia, near the region. The goalkeeper recovered just enough to slide and make a desperate slit on He Georgia, but Dembele arrived at the balloon first, exceeded it and, with the unattended goal, struck the sidenetting. Every moment was a threat; Towards the last 15 minutes, every moment could also be decisive.

And a moment was. It started with a flight, Kane this time that the man caught, and there was Vitinha rushing forward, João Neves produced a superb tower and gifted entered inside, and cut the shot in the area, Neuer sliding while he was trying to adapt. It seemed to be that, but it was a wild game that would have a final. Pacho was sent for a fault on Leon Goretzka, Kane excluded an equalizer for the offside, then Lucas Hernández almost put the victory in danger with an act of stupidity, in red for a elbow on Raphaël Guerreiro. Bayern continued to come, offered hope, but instead, PSG left, this time in the semi-finals in New York.