By Bonface Mulyungi
Paris Saint-Germain will face Arsenal in the 2025-26 Champions League final after the French side advanced past Bayern Munich following a 1-1 draw in Wednesday’s semifinal second leg and a 6-5 advantage on aggregate.
After a nine-goal thriller last week in the opening leg, the second meeting between the European giants saw only two goals with the valuable tally for PSG coming very early in the first half.
Ousmane Dembélé netted his seventh goal of the competition 139 seconds into match to double PSG’s aggregate lead and force Bayern Munich into desperation mode in front of a sold-out crowd at the Allianza Arena.In the third minute, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Fabián Ruiz worked a give-and-go which sent the Georgia international down the left side. The PSG winger then cut his pass across the box to an unmarked Dembélé’, who fired it into the net for the 1-0 lead.
The assist was Kvaratskhelia’s sixth in the Champions League this season to go along with his 10 goals. His 16 goal contributions is now tied with Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé for the lead in the competition.
Bayern Munich thought they had good reason for a penalty kick shout in the 31st minute when PSG’s João Neves handled the ball. Referee João Pinheiro did not make a call and stopped the game in a bizarre moment. That came shortly after Nuno Mendes avoided a handball, which could have ended with a second yellow card. Pinheiro somehow whistled Bayern Munich for a handball.
According to BBC Sports’ Dale Johnson, there is a part of the IFAB handball rule stating no foul should be called if a ball is unexpectedly kicked into the hand/arm of a teammate, even if the hand/arm is away from the body. A whistle would only occur if the ball goes directly into the opposition net or the player scores immediately afterwards.Those calls left the Bayern Munich sideline furious after a frustrating half that saw Harry Kane record just one of his 24 touches on the ball inside the PSG penalty area.
The second half was more of the same as Bayern Munich retained possession dominance, but the finishing left much to be desired as PSG goalkeeper Matvei Safonov was not threatened.Kane would give Bayern Munich late hope with a goal in the 94th minute, but it was too little, too late for the Bundesliga champions.PSG will now face Arsenal in the final on Saturday, May 30 at Puskás Aréna in Budapest. The Ligue 1 side is aiming to become the first team to win back-to-back Champions League titles since Real Madrid’s three-peat from 2016-2018.
