PSG vs Bayern Munich: Champions League final is the most balanced in years

While the public attitude of the players of Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain is that they are now accustomed to the circumstances, some of those who have played in a Champions League final before have spoken of the differences.

It does not feel like this fixture should.

There is a distinctive and precious atmosphere for a city at the weekend that hosts a Champions League final. It feels the center of the world, all the more so because of the tens of thousands of followers gathered in hope. There’s a charge for the air. There is a sense of life.

This weekend, Uefa still had their gigantic European Cup in the center of Rossio Square, but there are only ever 20 people around. It’s gripping.

The host city normally attracts a who’s who of elite football, all the best hotels fully occupied, all the best restaurants impossible to get reservations. On Thursday night, Nasser Al-Khelaifi and the rest of the PSG contingent were able to head to the JNcQUOI Asia restaurant on Libertade to watch Bayern’s semi-final, no one to even see how they come out.

The marquee match of European football offers marked reminders of how strange this whole situation remains. Future images of this finale will be a testament to that. Even in their bio-safe hotels, the players can not help noticing the difference, the lack of charge. The finale could be almost anywhere.

That feeling of dislocation is strangely fitting, as this is a landmark finale in another sense. It represents the culmination of an era, and not just for PSG. It’s where football has been going for a while, attracting bigger and bigger interest from stronger spheres.

That this season, the marquee match of European football is almost completely applied by Qatar. Bayern are one of the football clubs where the country has its strongest commercial relationship. PSG are a direct state political project.

The fact that the latter have finally made it to a Champions League final is thus a historic landmark, but not one that the game should be proud of. Even worse is the knowledge – supported by many sources – that Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia view this with envy.

It is worth reflecting that the most prestigious and sacred game of football can be seen as a political weapon in an economic cold war in the Gulf. This match has dimensions beyond Franco-German friendship.

As incongruous as it is from shifting to football, the political context has a huge impact on what the teams – and the game – will actually look like.

This match is the last in a series of Champions League finals between two superclubs, but perhaps the first between old money and new money. Even Chelsea-Bayern in 2012 took place when that era began to form, and felt a lower level to this.

Both PSG and Bayern now have revenues of more than € 600 million, and payroll accounts of more than € 350 million, as from various financial structures.

The big temptation is that everything has set in for what is possibly the most balanced and what is legal final in years, perhaps since 2009. That was a largely one-sided Barcelona victory over Manchester United, and keep an eye on how ‘ t the final has not had a really good game since 2008, and has not had a great game since 2005. There had been great performances, sure, but no really intense and involved matches. This might just be.

There are a few in history who have so many storylines, and so many exceptional players on such excellent form.

The latter forms one of those stories, as the whole game is underlined by the possibility that this may represent the first finale of the post-Messi-Ronaldo era, as well as the struggle to be their successor.

Qatar’s infinite resources have allowed PSG to bring two of the main candidates – Neymar and Kylian Mbappe – into one team, in what may be one of the deepest teams the game has ever seen.

Bayern’s old money – and wealth of modern sponsors, including Qatar Airways – has in the meantime allowed them to put together a truly complete team that exudes quality in all areas.

That’s another element that enhances this game. No two finalists have ever entered this competition for better form collectively, and no finalist has ever been involved in form as good as Bayern. The German champions have not lost a game at all since December 7, winning 28 and winning since one of their 29 games. That has seen them win 20 consecutive matches in all leagues, and 10 consecutive matches in the Champions League. They were the first team to ever go into the final with a perfect record of the previous rounds.

Such figures reflect on themselves an incomplete situation. They are also on the run regarding their league titles. The domestic dominances of Bayern and PSG are the worst examples of the financial inequality that destroys the game.

It’s indicating where football is that one of them will win the ninth European treble in history, and it just does not seem remarkable. For Bayern, it would be their second in seven years. For PSG, it would be a square.

None of that matters as much as the European Cup itself.

The domestic trophies are now seen as a given. The Champions League is what has taken them away, which represents the big challenge.

Bayern won it seven years ago as part of that treble and are aiming for their sixth, but they have lost as many of their 10 finals as they have won. It is the stimulation of a particular institutional neurosis around the fixture. Even 2013 was preceded by the biggest trauma of all, of that match in 2012. They have adopted a stoppage time goal like in 1999, but this in their home stadium, when they left even bigger favorites.

It is precisely the lack of such history that has also created a neurosis for PSG. You could not have a better illustration of old money and new money than the difference in records. Five previous wins and 10 finals against zero and zero.

However, PSG’s complexes go back further than the final, which is why it is hoped that just getting to the semi-finals proves an important psychological step.

Even the last 16 victory over Borussia Dortmund was certainly seen as a landmark for them. It raises another question about this game.

Both have convinced in each individual game in different ways, but are they really testing against a team of equal quality? That is much harder to say.

That’s also what really makes 50-50 games like this even more unpredictable. Minor differences can suddenly only become massive because teams are not used to testing their fracture lines.

And both have those fracture lines, no matter how small.

PSGs are between a pedestrian midfield and electric attack, but also wide out. If Joshua Kimmich steps past Neymar, the Brazilian will not back down, causing Kimmich, Thomas Muller and Serge Gnabry to stop against Presnel Kimpembe and Leandro Paredes. The numbers do not add up well for the French champions there.

Bayern’s fractured line is behind that defense. It has appeared vulnerable to tempo several times. Both Barca and Lyon had 20-minute spells when it looked like they were bound to score, only for Bayern to stand almost firmly and then strike at the right moment. They went on to take full command, but there was a keen awareness that they were moving away from inferior opposition. Mbappe can just walk away from them several times, they ruin in one of those critical differences that determine a game en masse.

Bayern knew this all too well, as that is exactly what happened to them in the 2013-14 semi-final against Real Madrid.

It feels like the game will eventually develop into a duel between Bayern’s fluid team approach and PSG’s explosive individuals. The German champions will look to control the entire stream of the game. The French champions will look to burst suddenly.

That’s where the difference will lie, in these most different of finals.

One of them will lift that big trophy at the end, but stands for empty Estadio da Luz.

It will not feel like it should, but that is the case with much of this game.