Reigning UEFA Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain can avenge a defeat that marked their lowest point this past season when they face Bayern Munich in Saturday’s FIFA Club World Cup quarterfinal in Atlanta.
On Nov. 26, PSG suffered a 1-0 loss to Bayern that marked a third consecutive defeat in the UCL league chase and put their chances of progressing in danger.
Kim Min-jae scored in the 38th minute and PSG star Ousmane Dembele was sent off for his second booking in the 56th in what was a dominant performance by the German side.
But the Parisians rebounded to win their last three league phase games and advance, then stormed to their first-ever UCL/European Cup title while defeating Liverpool, Aston Villa, Arsenal and Inter Milan along the way.
Despite that eventual triumph, PSG forward Bradley Barcola admitted this week that the loss would still be on his team’s mind heading into Saturday’s rematch.
“This could be a very good moment to take our revenge,” Barcolo said in an interview with RMC Sport. “When we faced them earlier this season, we weren’t in a great moment. Now I think we can do much better in this game. Are we favorites? I don’t know, but when we play like this, I think we’re unstoppable.”
PSG’s most impressive CWC win is a 4-0 victory over Atletico Madrid in their opener. And after missing an injured Dembele through the entire group stage, he returned to play the final half-hour of a non-competitive 4-0 win over Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami in the Round of 16, in which PSG scored all of their goals before halftime.
Bayern’s only tournament blemish came in a 1-0 Group C defeat to Benfica, in which manager Vincent Kompany significantly rotated his squad after they had already assured their progression.
In Bayern’s second game, Michael Olise’s 84th-minute strike earned the Germans a 2-1 win over Argentina’s Boca Juniors before an intensely pro-Boca atmosphere in Miami Gardens, Fla.
Two matches later in the same stadium, Harry Kane’s second and third goals of the tournament quieted yet another 60,000-plus crowd in a 4-2 Round of 16 win over Brazil’s Flamengo.
In comparison, PSG are certainly a step up in quality, but not necessarily in adversity.
“We have to try to take the energy and the good feeling into this match,” Kane told Bayern Munich’s website. “We know it’s going to be difficult but we feel like we can beat anyone when we’re at our top level.”
–Field Level Media
