Paris St Germain manager Luis Enrique believes his team gave their supporters “a gift” by reaching the Champions League final following a 6-5 aggregate win over Bayern Munich.
After last week’s nine-goal thriller in France, Ousmane Dembele’s third-minute goal in the Allianz Arena got the second leg off to the perfect start for the holders and left Bayern chasing a two-goal deficit that ultimately proved too much.
Harry Kane’s goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time made it 1-1 on the night but arrived too late to seriously unsettle the visitors, who will play Arsenal in the final in Budapest on May 30.
“Good memories,” said Luis Enrique. “We could leave the match with a lot of intensity. The defence were better than the attack. The character we showed against a team like Bayern is so positive. We’re so happy to reach a second Champions League final in a row.
“It was very intense. Very difficult. They play football at the highest level. Both teams are similar, we love to press higher. We are very happy.
“In two days I’m going to celebrate my birthday. I’m very happy. We’re in the next phase of the competition, the final of the Champions League. We want to give our supporters that kind of gift.”
PSG opened up a two-goal lead in the tie inside three minutes. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia raced into space down the left and looked up to see Dembele arriving in the box. The Georgian playmaker pulled the ball back for Dembele to race onto it and hammer a finish first-time into the roof of the net before Manuel Neuer could react.
Bayern were furious not to have been awarded a penalty midway through the half. Goalkeeper Matvei Safonov made an uncertain punch and the ball landed with Vitinha, who in attempting to clear slammed the ball against the arm of team-mate Joao Neves. As it was another PSG player that had made the clearance, it was not deemed to be handball despite Neves’ arm being well away from his body.
Kane found space from Alphonso Davies’ pass in added time to fire the ball into the roof of the net, but there was not to be a famous fightback.
“I understand if they’re disappointed,” Kompany told TNT Sports when asked what he said afterwards to his players. “I think we gave everything.
“It was a game of details. I think we’ve played five times against PSG in the last two years and we’ve won two times, they’ve won two times and now was a draw, so it’s just been that kind of game every single time.
“We have to look at some of the phases that were decided by the officials across the two games which, it’s never an excuse for everything…but it matters.
“If we look at both legs probably too much went against us. The guys gave everything and we tried against a fantastic PSG team.”
