Champions League: Bayern comes back to advances in style, Kylian Mbappé powers PSG to quarterfinals

Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain are the first two clubs to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League.

Bayern overcame a 1-0 aggregate deficit to defeat Italian side Lazio 3-0 on Tuesday in Munich. Harry Kane sent the hosts on their way when he nodded in the opener in the first half, then capped the rout in the second.

In Spain, PSG finished off Real Sociedad with a 2-1 victory. Kylian Mbappé scored both goals for the visitors, who advanced 4-1 on aggregate following last month’s 2-0 win in the French capital. 

Here are three quick thoughts on Tuesday’s two Champions League games:

PSG completes two-leg masterclass

There was a legitimate question in the French capital before the 2023-24 season: would PSG be better this year than last? The club lost Neymar and Lionel Messi over the summer, leaving Kylian Mbappé as the Parisians’ undisputed main man up front.

Mbappé, for his part, is probably in his final season with his hometown team. Yet despite all of that — and despite the constant noise surrounding the on-again, off-again relationship between the Qatar-owned club and its lone remaining megastar (more on that later) — PSG is off to the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in three seasons.

Mbappé, who last month opened the scoring in PSG’s 2-0 win in the first leg of the two-match home-and-home, did the same in Tuesday’s return match. 

The brilliant individual effort effectively ended the series right then, boosting the visitors’ aggregate lead to an insurmountable 3-0. Mbappé would add another in the second half before the hosts managed a consolation goal to round out the scoring. 

After a slow start, Kane and Müller fuel Bayern’s pushback 

More than 30 minutes into its win-or-go-home second leg inside a packed, tension-filled Allianz Arena, Bayern Munich still had no answer for Lazio. The Italians had fully deserved their 1-0 first leg triumph, and with halftime fast approaching on Tuesday, the visitors had once again been the better team.

For the hosts, the pressure couldn’t have been greater. But then that’s what Harry Kane signed up for when he left perennial Premier League underachiever Tottenham for Bavaria last summer. Kane has been the brightest part of an otherwise nightmare campaign for Thomas Tuchel’s side. And sure enough, it was he who pulled the Germans back on level terms to restore a sense of order. Müller scored the eventual series winner before the break before Kane put the contest away with his second.

It was a hugely needed result for Bayern, which is already out of the German Cup and unlikely to win a 12th consecutive German title this year given Bayer Leverkusen’s huge lead atop the Bundesliga. But now, suddenly, in the midst of their worst season in recent memory, the six-time European champs are potentially just five games away from winning a seventh.

Mbappé delivers amid latest drama

After everything he has accomplished during his still-young career, it’s hard to be surprised by anything Mbappé does anymore. But despite what is shaping up to be a messy divorce — PSG manager Luis Enrique benched the World Cup winner in two recent Ligue 1 matches — Mbappé is clearly unfazed. In what was arguably his most important contest this season so far, the 25-year-old  was at his unstoppable best from start to finish on Tuesday. The brace gives Mbappé six goals in eight Champions League games this season, more than any other player, and an astonishing 46 in 69 in his career.

It was enough to make one wonder: Assuming these are Mbappé’s last few months at the Parc des Princes, could he really deliver PSG its (and his) first doze of European glory on his way out the door?

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.

 

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