This has never happened before in the Champions League! PSG and FC Bayern Munich make history in a thrilling spectacle

Harry Kane put Bayern Munich ahead in the 17th minute at the Parc des Princes, converting a penalty after Luis Díaz had been fouled in the box by PSG centre-back Willian Pacho.

PSG shrugged off the setback almost immediately, levelling through Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, whose curled effort beat FCB keeper Manuel Neuer. The hosts then pressed forward and took the lead after half an hour when Joao Neves headed home from a corner.

The pendulum swung wildly, and Michael Olise’s 41st-minute strike restored parity at 2–2.

PSG looked set to go into the interval level until VAR intervened, awarding a controversial first-half stoppage-time penalty for handball. Ousmane Dembélé stepped up and slotted the spot-kick home to give the hosts a 3–2 lead at the break.

The second half remained frenetic: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia stretched the advantage to 4–2 in the 56th minute, and Dembélé soon completed his brace by beating Manuel Neuer at the near post. Bayern refused to wilt, and in the 65th minute Upamecano pulled one back to make it 3–5. Four minutes later Diaz lashed in the ninth goal of the night to narrow the gap to 4–5. The record for goals in a Champions League semi-final now stood at nine, yet the French side hung on for a slender lead until the final whistle.

The tie will be settled next Wednesday when PSG travel to Munich for the second leg; the winner will face either Arsenal or Atlético Madrid in the Budapest final at the end of May.

World Cup winner Christoph Kramer, analysing the game for German TV, marvelled: “I’ve never seen a match like this. With all that space, it could have ended 9–9.”

Incidentally, Bayern and PSG could set a new record for the highest-scoring Champions League semi-final in the second leg. They would need to find the net five more times to claim the mark outright.

The record is currently held by two other semi-finals that produced 13 goals. In 2017/18, Liverpool FC beat AS Roma 5-2 in the first leg, only for the Italians to nearly overturn the tie with a 4-2 second-leg win. The same tally was reached in last season’s turbulent semi-final between FC Barcelona and Inter Milan. On that occasion, the Nerazzurri advanced after a 3-3 draw in the first leg at the Camp Nou and a dramatic 4-3 extra-time victory in front of their home fans in the return fixture.