Bayern Munich brush aside PSG as French giants fail again in Champions League
By PA Sport Staff
Former Paris St Germain forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting helped knock his old side out of the Champions League as Bayern Munich sealed a dominant 3-0 aggregate victory.
Leading 1-0 from the first leg in Paris, the 33-year-old scored the opener in a 2-0 second-leg victory to send the Bundesliga giants through to the quarter-finals.
The Cameroon international benefited from a defensive mistake from 17-year-old substitute El Chadaille Bitshiabu to score just past the hour mark before Serge Gnabry put the seal on another European failure for the big-spending French club.
Bitshiabu, who had only come on at half-time to replace Nordi Mukiele – who lasted just nine minutes himself after replacing the injured Marquinhos – tried to play out from the left-back position but put Marco Verratti under pressure and he was robbed by Thomas Muller.
It's a Bayern thing ❤️🔥#MiaSanMia #FCBPSG pic.twitter.com/SyPQYB5ln8
— FC Bayern Munich (@FCBayernEN) March 8, 2023
Muller moved it on to Leon Goretzka, who drew Gianluigi Donnarumma before rolling a pass to his left for Choupo-Moting to score his 17th of the season.
The former Stoke striker thought he had opened the scoring in the 52nd minute when he glanced Jamal Musiala’s inviting curling ball into the bottom right corner, only for VAR to rule it out due to an offside against Muller, who was interfering as he attempted to play the ball.
While Choupo-Moting may have delivered the decisive blow, the hosts – and certainly goalkeeper Yann Sommer – were indebted to Matthijs de Ligt after he cleared a Ferreira Vitinha shot off the line just before the break.
Sommer attempted to dribble out of his box and Achraf Hakimi pressured him into presenting the ball to Vitinha who rolled a shot past the goalkeeper towards an empty net only for the Holland international to slide in and hook clear.
❤️💙 Thanks to our supporters who were in Munich. ❤️💙
❤️💙 Thank you for your unconditional support. ❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/S9WDM5ugZK— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) March 8, 2023
Just prior to that PSG had lost captain Marquinhos to injury, allowing the club’s record goalscorer Kylian Mbappe to take the armband but the additional responsibility could not inspire any heroics from the France striker.
The closest he came all night was as early as the 14th minute when he had the ball in the net but the whistle had already gone for a foul as he had clattered into Sommer on the edge of the penalty area.
Bayern’s defensive resilience in Europe this season – this was their seventh clean sheet in eight matches – meant even a side featuring Mbappe and Lionel Messi faltered as PSG failed to get past the last 16 stage for the fifth time in seven years.
