Bayern Munich beat PSG to reach Champions League quarter-finals

Bayern Munich forward, Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, scored against his former club while Serge Gnabry added a late second as the Germans beat Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) 2-0 on Wednesday to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.

33-year-old Choupo-Moting, who played for PSG from 2018-20, tapped in from a Leon Goretzka assist in the 61st minute.

Substitute Gnabry struck on the break in the 89th minute to seal the hosts’ 3-0 aggregate win following their 1-0 victory in the first leg in Paris.

The result established Bayern as one of the title favourites going into the last eight and left PSG’s star-studded squad including world champion Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe without a shot at Europe’s premier club trophy for another year.

Speaking after the match, Bayern Munich coach, Julian Nagelsmann, said his side “needed the crowd” to help them past PSG’s “brutal quality” in the opening half.

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“In the second half we were much better than our opponents and deserved to win,” Nagelsmann added.

Bayern were indebted to a fine goalline clearance by Matthijs de Ligt in the first period but were otherwise largely untroubled as Mbappe and Messi offered little.

“It worked, you need to say honestly that in a football game, you need to have luck on your side.

“If that became a 1-0, you don’t know how the team would react,” Bayern captain, Thomas Mueller, said.

On his part, PSG coach, Christophe Galtier, lamented his side’s failure to “make the most of our chances” and conceding “a really stupid goal” through Marco Verratti’s error.

“There is frustration and disappointment in the dressing room. We can’t repeat the match, we have to look ahead,” Galtier said.

The quarter-final draw will take place on March 17, 2023.

The Star