The CL Semi-Finals

[Mishale]

Incredible 29-year first behind surprise Champions League semi-finals

The last time there were no English, Italian, or Spanish sides in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, the competition wasn’t even known by that name.
Instead, in 1990-91, Europe’s premier knockout competition was known as the European Cup – the final year of its existence before the rebranded and expanded Champions League was introduced.

The semi-finalists of this season’s Champions League have just been decided. And for the first time in nearly three decades, there are no English, Italian, or Spanish sides to be found!


Here’s everything you need to know about the semi-finals!
Paris St-Germain face Red Bull Leipzig in the first semi-final, while Lyon face Bayern Munich in the second semi-final.

Like the quarter-final stage, both clashes will be just one leg instead of the usual home-and-away fixturing.

And in an added change from the usual, both matches – as well the final – will take place at neutral venues in Lisbon, Portugal.


HOW THEY GOT HERE:

PSG, the French Ligue 1 champions, booked their place in the final four courtesy of a 2-1 comeback victory in stoppage time over Italian underdogs Atalanta.
RB Leipzig saw off Atletico Madrid 2-1 in their quarter-final.

The other semi-finalists achieved even more impressive results in their respective quarterfinals.
Bayern Munich demolished Barcelona 8-2 (!) in a barnstorming victory, while Lyon upset Manchester City 3-1 despite boasting just 28 per cent possession.

Impressively, Bayern Munich’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski leads the Champions League scoring charts this campaign with a whopping 14.




HISTORY ON THE LINE:
Neither of those sides have ever reached the finals of the Champions League or its previous iterations, although PSG previously reached the semi-finals all the way back in 1994-95.
In fact, if either PSG or Lyon claim victory in their respective clashes, they will become the first team(s) from France to reach the big dance since Monaco in 2003-04.

Bayern Munich is undoubtedly the side with the most history and prestige in European competition.
The five-time winners – most recently in 2012-13 – also have the upper hand over their semi-final rivals Lyon.

The pair faced off in the 2009-10 semi-finals, the only previous occasion that Lyon reached the final four of the Champions League.

In a two-leg affair, the German giants won 1-0 and 3-0. The list of names on both sides includes plenty of memorable stars: Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Robben and Ribery for Bayern, and Källström, Lloris, and Pjanic for Lyon.


FIXTURE DETAILS:

RB Leipzig (GER) v Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) Tuesday, August 18: 10PM

OL Lyon (FRA) v Bayern Munich (GER) Wednesday, August 19: 10PM

The grand final takes place on Sunday, August 23 at 10PM

Incredible 29-year first behind surprise Champions League semi-finals

Incredible 29-year first behind surprise Champions League semis

www.foxsports.com.au

It's a Germany vs France Semi-final
Who will emerge victorious. Germany or France?


How i pray for a Leipzig vs Lyon Final.
would be one of the best CL final ever.

 

[Mishale]

Todays Game

RB Leipzig v Paris St-Germain

Kylian Mbappe is fit to start for Paris Saint-Germain against RB Leipzig in Tuesday's Champions League semi-final in Lisbon, says coach Thomas Tuchel.

He has scored 30 in 35 appearances in all competitions this season, including five in eight in the Champions League.

For PSG, Tuesday's game represents a first European Cup/Champions League semi-final since 1995, having reached the last 16 for the previous three seasons and the quarter-finals four campaigns on the bounce before that.

RB Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann, who worked together with Tuchel in Augsburg's reserves 12 years ago, believes the best way to try and combat PSG's attacking players is to defend as a unit.

Tuesday's game will also RB Leipzig's first Champions League semi-final appearance, in just their second time in the competition.

Even more remarkable is that 11 years ago they were competing in the fifth tier of German football.
They have reached this stage under the guidance of Nagelsmann in his debut season in charge at the club.
At 33, he is the youngest coach in history to reach a Champions League semi-final.


go RB Leipzig

 

[El patrone]

Leipzig win

 

[Mishale]

Leipzig win

Let's hope so.

6 min to kick-off

 

[Mishale]

Todays Game

RB Leipzig v Paris St-Germain

Kylian Mbappe is fit to start for Paris Saint-Germain against RB Leipzig in Tuesday's Champions League semi-final in Lisbon, says coach Thomas Tuchel.

He has scored 30 in 35 appearances in all competitions this season, including five in eight in the Champions League.

For PSG, Tuesday's game represents a first European Cup/Champions League semi-final since 1995, having reached the last 16 for the previous three seasons and the quarter-finals four campaigns on the bounce before that.

RB Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann, who worked together with Tuchel in Augsburg's reserves 12 years ago, believes the best way to try and combat PSG's attacking players is to defend as a unit.

Tuesday's game will also RB Leipzig's first Champions League semi-final appearance, in just their second time in the competition.

Even more remarkable is that 11 years ago they were competing in the fifth tier of German football.
They have reached this stage under the guidance of Nagelsmann in his debut season in charge at the club.
At 33, he is the youngest coach in history to reach a Champions League semi-final.


go RB Leipzig

Nice run Leipzig.
better run next season

Paris St-Germain are through to their first Champions League final courtesy of a deserved victory over RB Leipzig in an entertaining semi-final in Lisbon.

One of Europe's biggest spenders, but also one of the continent's most high-profile underachievers on the grandest stage, PSG finally seized their opportunity courtesy of goals from Marquinhos, Angel di Maria and Juan Bernat.

PSG will find out who they face in Sunday's final when five-time winners Bayern Munich play Lyon in the other semi-final on Wednesday.

In the three seasons prior to this one they exited in the last 16, and before that they went out in the quarter-finals four years in a row - results that ultimately cost managers Laurent Blanc and Unai Emery their jobs.

RB Leipzig are the babies of European football, having only come into existence in their current guise in 2009 when drinks company Red Bull bought fifth-tier side SSV Markranstadt and rebranded them.


PSG beat Arsenal record for longest wait for first final

• This was PSG's 110th game in the European Cup/Champions League - the most played by a side before reaching their first final, overtaking Arsenal's record of 90 between 1971-2006.
• PSG will be the fifth different French side to appear in a European Cup/Champions League final and the first since Monaco in 2003-04. Only Italy, Germany (6 each) and England (8) have had more different clubs appear in the final of the competition.
• German sides have been eliminated in the semi-finals of the Champions League on each of the past five occasions they have reached this stage of the competition (Bayern four times between 2014-2018 and RB Leipzig tonight), since both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund made the final in 2012-13.
• No side has ever scored in more consecutive matches in major Uefa competitions than PSG's current run of 34 (level with Real Madrid between 2011-2014 in the Champions League). The last side to stop the Parisians scoring were Manchester City back in a 1-0 win in April 2016.
• PSG's Angel di Maria is unbeaten in all 17 Champions League matches he has scored in (W15 D2 L0 - 21 goals in total) - only Mohamed Salah (18), Gonzalo Higuain (21) and Patrick Kluivert (25) have scored in more games without defeat in the competition's history.

 

[Mishale]

Todays Game


Lyon vs Bayern Munich (10PM)


The German champions are looking to complete a trophy treble this season under Flick, who took over on an interim basis from Niko Kovac in November but subsequently secured a permanent deal.

Bayern have brushed aside all they have faced in Europe this season, winning all nine of their matches to date at an aggregate score of 39-8.
Their record in all competitions since losing to Borussia Monchengladbach on 7 December last year reads: played 28, won 27, drawn 1.

Lyon are the surprise package of this season's Champions League, eliminating the Italian champions and Premier League runners-up City, which is in contrast to a domestic campaign that saw them finish seventh in the curtailed Ligue 1 season.

Bayern looking to end run of four straight semi-final defeats

• Bayern Munich and Lyon will meet in European competition for the ninth time, with the German side winning four of the previous eight (D2 L2). Indeed, the last time they met was also in the Champions League semi-finals, with Bayern winning 4-0 on aggregate in 2009-10.
• This will be Bayern Munich's 12th appearance in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, with only Real Madrid (13) reaching the final four of the competition on more occasions; the German side have failed to progress from each of their last four semi-finals, since winning the competition in 2012/13.
• Lyon manager Rudi Garcia is looking to become just the second French manager to lead a French team to the Champions League final, following Didier Deschamps with Monaco back in 2003-04.
• Bayern Munich are just the second side in UEFA Champions League history to win their first nine games in a campaign (after Barcelona in 2002/03 - a run of nine), whilst a victory in this match would see them equal the longest winning run in the competition's history (10 set by Bayern in November 2013 and Real Madrid in February 2015).
• Lyon midfielder Houssem Aouar has assisted seven goals in his 14 appearances in the Champions League; since his debut season in the competition in 2018-19, only Kylian Mbappé (10) and Riyad Mahrez (eight) have more assists.
• In all competitions, Bayern Munich are on the longest unbeaten run across Europe's top five league's (P28 W27 D1 L0), scoring 94 goals during this run (3.4 per game) and winning each of their last 19. In the UEFA Champions League alone this season they have netted 39 goals, with only three sides scoring more in a single campaign in the competition's history.
• Lyon have not won consecutive Champions League matches in a single campaign since the 2011-12 season when defeating Dinamo Zagreb and APOEL Nicosia; 2019-20 is their fourth Champions League campaign since then.
• Robert Lewandowski has scored in eight consecutive UEFA Champions League appearances for Bayern Munich - only Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2003 (9) and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018 (11) have scored in more successive matches in the competition's history; indeed, only Cristiano Ronaldo (17 in 13/14, 16 in 15/16 & 15 in 17/18) has scored more goals in a single Champions League season than Lewandowski this campaign (14).
• In their respective quarter-finals, Bayern's Philippe Coutinho and Lyon's Moussa Dembele both scored twice as 75th minute substitutes. They now both jointly hold the record for fewest minutes played in a Champions League knockout match while scoring at least twice (15 minutes).

 

[El patrone]

Maybe lyon can pull a surprise and win you never know.

 

[Mishale]

Maybe lyon can pull a surprise and win you never know.

i think the time for surprises is over.
Bayern will win the same way PSG won yesterday.

but let's wait and see.

 

[Mishale]

Champions League final:
Bayern v PSG (10PM)

There is so much attacking quality on display in Sunday's Champions League final that it will be a joy to watch.

It's not often you get a massive occasion like this with two teams who just love to play football and are going to go out thinking 'let's see who can score the most', but that is the way it is going to be in Lisbon.

Bayern Munich are like a machine and will be very difficult to stop, but Paris St-Germain have such wonderfully talented individuals that you could never write them off.

'PSG's pace can punish Bayern's high line'

Bayern have fielded the same team in each of their three previous Champions League games in Lisbon, against Chelsea, Barcelona and Lyon, scoring 15 goals in those matches, and conceding three. In total they have scored 42 goals in 10 European matches this season, giving them the highest goals-per-game ratio in the competition's history


Clearly, Bayern's approach works - they are on a 29-game unbeaten run and have already won a domestic double - but the way they press teams in the opposition half with their full-backs high up the pitch is very risky against a team with PSG's strengths.

PSG's team that beat RB Leipzig in the semi-final. If Keylor Navas recovers from the hamstring injury he sustained against Atalanta in the quarter-finals, he could replace Sergio Rico in goal


'Muller is terrifying to play against'
The biggest problem for any team that faces Bayern is how the hell do you keep them out?
Stop them down the middle, and they will hit you down the flanks. Yes, Robert Lewandowski has scored a ridiculous number of goals this season, but they have so many other threats.

Bayern's Poland striker Robert Lewandowski has scored 15 goals in the Champions League this season. He has scored in each of the nine European games he has played in 2019-20

'Boateng is not catching Mbappe - and neither is anyone else'

Mbappe is the fastest footballer in the world according to data from French newspaper Le Figaro, clocking a top speed of 36km/h

I don't see Bayern changing their system on Sunday and defending deep, even though they know PSG have the players to punish any weakness they have at the back.

Should they win the Champions League for the first time since 2013, Bayern will complete only the second European-domestic treble in their proud history.

"It is a special game," said Flick, whose side have won all 10 games in this season's Champions League.
"We have made a huge step forward in terms of our development and the team is ready to give it all and try and win."

While Bayern are hunting a sixth triumph in the competition, PSG are looking to win the Champions League for the first time.


Bayern have swept all before them in this season's competition, including a crushing 8-2 win over Barcelona in a one-leg quarter-final.
Their attack has been relentless, with the team scoring 42 goals in 10 games - including 10 in two group matches against Tottenham and seven over two legs against Chelsea in the last 16.

Flick said he will not play it safe against PSG, who possess one of the planet's finest forward lines in Neymar, who cost a world record fee of 222m euros (£200m) from Barcelona in 2017, Kylian Mbappe and Angel di Maria.


Mbappe helped France win the World Cup in 2018 and the 21-year-old is eager to get his hands on the Champions League trophy for the first time.
"That is exactly the reason I joined the club," the former Monaco forward said.
"I always said I wanted to write the history of French football. I have another opportunity to do that on Sunday."

Kylian Mbappe was 19 when he scored for France in the 2018 World Cup final against Croatia

PSG have been one of Europe's biggest spenders, but also one of the continent's most high-profile underachievers on the grandest stage.

27 years since a French team won Champions League - the stats

• Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain have met eight times previously, all in the Champions League group stages - PSG have won five of those matches, with Bayern winning the other three, including the most recent game in December 2017.
• This is PSG's first ever European Cup/Champions League final, becoming the 41st team to reach the final. The last six teams competing in their first final have all lost, with the last first-time winner being Borussia Dortmund in 1997 against Juventus.
• Bayern have reached their 11th European Cup/Champions League final, with only Real Madrid playing in more (16). They currently have five titles, the fourth-best tally behind Real Madrid (13), AC Milan (7) and Liverpool (6).
• PSG have reached only their third major Uefa final, previously doing so in the 1995-96 and 1996-97 Cup Winners' Cup.
• Bayern have scored 42 goals in 10 games in this season's Champions League, with only Barcelona in 1999-2000 scoring more in a single campaign (45), although they played 16 games that season.
• PSG are the fifth French side to reach a European Cup/Champions League final, and first since Monaco in 2004. Only one of the previous four has been victorious, with Marseille winning 1-0 against AC Milan in the 1993 final.
• Bayern boss Hansi Flick is only the sixth person to play for and manage the same side in a European Cup/Champions League final, after Miguel Munoz (Real Madrid), Vicente del Bosque (Real Madrid), Carlo Ancelotti (AC Milan), Pep Guardiola (Barcelona) and Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid). Flick played in Bayern's 2-1 defeat in the 1987 final by Porto, and could be the first of the six to lose as both a player and manager at a single club.

 

[stanley20]

Yes Coman Did It.Bayern Crowned The Winners!