Max Eberl’s remark verges on madness-yet it captures everything about FC Bayern

In a figurative sense, the players delivered a classic encounter for the ages on the Parc des Princes turf. 

The 5–4 thriller is now the highest-scoring Champions League semi-final on record. The English Sun calls it the “match of the century”, the Spanish Mundo Deportivo a “footballing masterpiece” and the French Figaro a “spectacle in a class of its own”, “a match that will go down in Champions League history”. 

PSG manager Luis Enrique simply stated, “That was the best match I’ve ever experienced as a manager.” Enrique has overseen two Champions League final victories, including last year’s 5–0 rout of Inter Milan in Munich.

FC Bayern took an early 1-0 lead, then fell behind, drew level at 2-2, and suddenly found themselves 2-5 down at the start of the second half. "It’s quite remarkable to stay calm in that situation and come back," said Joshua Kimmich afterwards. “In recent years, we would have crumbled there.” Yet this time the Munich side kept their composure, pulling one back to make it 4–5 and setting up a tantalising second leg next Wednesday. 

This season, the club boasts an incredible mentality and the unwavering belief that they can always find the net. Michael Olise, Harry Kane and Luis Diaz now form one of the most dangerous attacking trios in recent football history. Together they have earned their own acronym: OKD echoes earlier trios such as Barça’s MSN (Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Neymar) and Real Madrid’s BBC (Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo).

In the crucial final phase of the campaign, OKD continue to deliver. Just as in the second leg of the quarter-final against Real Madrid, all three struck again, taking their combined tally to 100 goals for the season. Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Federico Valverde—the next closest trio, on 69 goals—are already trailing by some distance.

Scoring four goals yet still losing is entirely down to conceding five—a trend that fits the current narrative perfectly. Against Real Madrid, the aggregate score over two legs was 6-4; on Saturday, they came back from 0-3 down to beat FSV Mainz 05 4-3. In their last 15 matches, the Bavarians have kept just three clean sheets and shipped at least two goals on seven occasions. 

Under Vincent Kompany, Bayern press high and man-mark aggressively, a system that demands peak fitness and concentration and is ruthlessly exploited when errors occur, as seen in Paris. PSG converted five shots on target and an xG of 1.91 into five goals in rapid succession, leaving Manuel Neuer helpless. It was the first time since 2010 that a goalkeeper had shipped five goals in the Champions League knockout phase without making a single save.

Two of those goals came from set pieces, a persistent weakness this season; even with the club’s set-piece coach, Aaron Danks, temporarily in charge, the problem persisted.

So what should be done ahead of the second leg? Should the system perhaps be tweaked a little after all? 

“Why are we here?” asked sporting director Max Eberl, standing in the Prince Park Stadium after the Champions League semi-final against the defending champions. He answered his own question immediately: “Because that’s how we’ve played football up to now. To suddenly change the whole game now would be completely absurd.” He then added the wonderful—though, after a 4–5 defeat, also slightly mad—sentence: “In the second leg, we need to finish off the chances we create up front—and we have plenty, plenty, plenty of them—more cleanly.” 

In other words, Bayern’s 4–5 defeat was not caused by leaking five goals but by scoring only four (xG: 2.51). Why not six, or eight, or even ten? PSG manager Enrique revealed that, after the final whistle, he asked his players in the dressing room how many goals they would need in the second leg to progress. “They said: at least three,” he reported. 

Regardless of whether Bayern end this campaign with a third treble, a double or just the Bundesliga, this side is already assured of a place in the club’s pantheon of entertaining teams.