Brilliant goals, moments of staggering skill, compelling tactical battles from the coaching teams left all who witnessed this sporting masterpiece counting down the minutes until the second leg kicks off in Munich next week.<\/p>\n
A contest containing nine goals is often littered with defensive mistakes and tactical naivety, but this was a night when pure brilliance won the day in a match that could have had even more goals than it delivered.<\/p>\n
The quality on the pitch at Parc des Princes meant this battle of the two best teams in European football this season was always likely to serve up a feast, with the blue touch paper lit by the visitors after 17 minutes.<\/p>\n
After Luis Diaz tumbled under a challenge from William Pacho, Harry Kane was never going to miss from the spot and, after three deep breaths and a confident run-up, he fired his spot kick past PSG keeper Matvei Safonov.<\/p>\n
Michael Olise then spurned a glorious chance to double Bayern\u2019s lead and it didn\u2019t take long for the home side to stamp their class on a semi-final that was quickly developing into a classic, with a magical 24th-minute equaliser from the genius that is Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, as the Georgian magician cut inside Josep Stanisic and delivered a fizzing finish that gave Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer no chance.<\/p>\n
This sensational encounter took another thrilling turn as Joao Neves flicked a header past Neuer to give his side a lead after 33 minutes and there was still so much more to come before the half-time whistle sounded.<\/p>\n
Olise blasted Bayern level five minutes before half-time with a thunderous shot that roared into the PSG net, with a first half that had it all still finding time for a controversial fifth goal.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane applauds fans<\/p>\n
Dembele\u2019s cross found a path onto the arm of Bayern\u2019s Alphonso Davies in the box. The ball deflected off the leg of the Canadian international via his thigh and that meant the decision to award a penalty was harsh.<\/p>\n
Dembele did not allow the cries of protest from Bayern players to distract him as he lashed home a confident penalty to complete 45 minutes of football that will live long in the memory.<\/p>\n
It was the first time that five goals had been scored in the first half of a Champions League semi-final, with fans fortunate enough to be inside the stadium gasping for more as the players left the field to clear their heads after a dizzying battle.<\/p>\n
The second half had so much to live up to, but these two supremely talented teams would not rest as this magical match added more memorable chapters.<\/p>\n
It was PSG who fired the starting gun on the second half**, scoring** as Kvaratskhelia crashed a shot into the Bayern net after a thrilling breakaway from the home team after 56 minutes.<\/p>\n
And when Dembele provided a delicious finish to wrong-foot Neuer and score PSG\u2019s fifth goal three minutes later, this tie was in danger of being won on this remarkable night in the French capital.<\/p>\n
The faces of the Bayern players were etched in despair as Dembele and the PSG players gathered to celebrate a strike that gave them what could have been a decisive three-goal advantage, but this was not a story that had reached its conclusion.<\/p>\n
Dayot Upamecano\u2019s header then gave Bayern some hope and when Diaz latched onto a classy Kane pass to score Bayern\u2019s fourth, which was allowed to stand after a VAR check for offside, the highest-scoring Champions League semi-final leg of all time had another compelling twist.<\/p>\n
The only surprise was that the last goal in this game came with 22 minutes left to play, with PSG\u2019s Senny Mayulu coming closest to a tenth goal of the night when his shot rattled the woodwork in the closing stages.<\/p>\n
Both teams will feel they can take something from this sporting classic and, with nine goals already shared between these two teams, more will almost certainly flow in the second leg in Munich next Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brilliant goals, moments of staggering skill, compelling tactical battles from the coaching teams left all who witnessed this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,898,112],"class_list":["post-422819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news-ticker","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}