Bayern Munich beat defending European champions Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday. Does that make them the real deal, or is a bigger test still to come?
Paris Saint-Germain couldn’t cope at times. Bayern Munich visited the Parc des Princes on Tuesday and set about being as much of an irritant as they possibly could.
Their fluid rotations in attack combined with relentlessness out of possession left PSG looking bamboozled. Luis Enrique’s men didn’t know who to track where and found it difficult to play through the visitors’ press.
Bayern were so effective in the first half that they essentially won the game before half-time, which was just as well given Luis Díaz – scorer of their two goals – was sent off just prior to the break.
PSG v Bayern xG race
It was very much a game of two halves in that respect. Understandably, PSG were dominant against 10 men after the break, but they didn’t do enough to claw back the deficit, coming up short in a 2-1 defeat.
Of course, on another day, the result could’ve gone against Bayern, that red card proving costly.
PSG had 25 shots on the night, the most Bayern have faced in a UEFA Champions League group/league phase game since October 2006 (25 vs Sporting CP).
PSG v Bayern momentum
Those shots were worth 1.95 xG to PSG, while Bayern had just 29% possession, their lowest on record (since 2003-04) in a UCL fixture.
In fact, in the second half, Bayern had just 13.9% of the ball. Again, this is obviously heavily influenced by being reduced to 10 men, but this is practically unheard of for them against any opposition.
PSG average positions vs Bayern in second half
Bayern average positions vs PSG in second half
Despite this, beating PSG in Paris is ultimately a victory that’ll generally be seen as a statement by Bayern; a win suggesting they are worthy of the hype their start to 2025-26 has generated.
It may well be that some outside of Germany didn’t quite realise how impressively Vincent Kompnay’s team have begun this season until Tuesday night. And it’s fair to say their form is at the very least notable.
Before their trip to Paris, Bayern had won all 15 of their matches this season. Actually, the last game they didn’t win (in any competition) was against PSG at the Club World Cup in July.
They scored three or more times in 12 of the 15 matches between dates with PSG, opening up a five-point lead at the Bundesliga summit thanks in part to thrashing RB Leipzig and beating Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen, while they’d enjoyed a 100% start in the Champions League, which included seeing off Chelsea on Matchday 1.
Tuesday’s win, then, took them to a remarkable 16 wins in a row in all competitions.
It might be tempting to assume that such a run is just par for the course with Bayern, so dominant they’ve been for most of the 21st century in Germany.
But that’s the best start to a season by any men’s team from the top five European leagues, and it means Bayern moved a step closer to their all-time longest winning streak.
The 23-match run of consecutive wins under Hansi Flick in 2020 (a Europe-wide record) is the only instance of Bayern winning more than 16 games in a row across all competitions in their history.
Their 56 goals in 16 matches this season is also by far the most of any team from Europe’s big five leagues, with Barcelona the next-highest scorers (37) albeit from two fewer games.
Bayern Munich xG this season
It’s also worth noting that Tuesday’s win was Bayern’s first over the reigning European champions since a 1-0 victory at Internazionale in the first leg of the 2010-11 round of 16.
However, it’s worth noting that since the start of 2023-24, PSG have lost five home games in the UEFA Champions League – only Red Bull Salzburg (7), Young Boys (6) and Benfica (6) have lost more.
Now, we should bear in mind that PSG reached at least the semi-finals of the UCL in each of the past two seasons, so they’ll have played more home games than most anyway. Nevertheless, it does make the point that the Parc des Princes hasn’t exactly been a fortress for PSG.
Still, the efficiency and breathlessness of Bayern’s first-half display will have unquestionably made people sit up and take note, with Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Serge Gnabry and Díaz all playing their part.
For many, PSG’s Champions League success last season crowned them as the best team in the world, though it cannot be ignored that they’ve had injury problems this season and some key players were absent on Tuesday.
That shouldn’t detract from what was undoubtedly a highly commendable result for Kompany’s side, but there’s arguably an even greater litmus test for this Bayern team on the horizon.
Probably the only other side in Europe currently receiving anything like the same praise as Bayern are Arsenal, whose own victory on Tuesday saw them equal the record for most consecutive wins without conceding by an English top-flight club (8).
The Gunners already look like they’ll take some stopping in the Premier League as leaders, and Mikel Arteta’s men are also the comfortable favourites to go all the way in the Champions League according to the Opta supercomputer, doing so in 23.9% of the latest 10,000 simulations – Bayern (13.5%) are deemed the second likeliest.
UEFA Champions League projections
The new format of the Champions League in some ways diminishes the impact of single encounters between two teams this early in the season, so it’d be a bit much to suggest Arsenal vs Bayern at the Emirates Stadium on 26 November is decisive.
But if anyone still needs convincing about Bayern’s brilliance, it’s fair to say beating this Arsenal side in their own back yard will likely convert any remaining sceptics.
UEFA Champions League Stats Opta
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