“It was the best football game I’ve been involved in.”
The statement by Portuguese Vitinha, one of Paris Saint-Germain’s Portuguese midfielders, reflects what not only him, but quite possibly the majority of players involved in the match, experienced this Tuesday (28) at the Parque dos Príncipes stadium, in Paris.
Vitinha considers himself privileged to have participated, and with the extra privilege of his team having won, PSG 5 x 4 Bayern Munich, the first game of one of the semi-finals of the Champions League, the main European interclub.
This is just two weeks after the same Bayern were victorious against Real Madrid in another thriller, 4-3, in the quarter-finals.
I can also consider myself lucky, as I watched one of the best games in history. I wish it hadn’t been on TV but at the stadium, which I had the happy opportunity to visit months ago.
It wasn’t on a game day (it was the interseason in Europe), so I took a tour, on a hot, sunny day in the French summer. The empty field has its charm, the seats without fans seem to magnify the grandeur of the arena, which is very beautiful, colored red, blue and white.
I walked around the lawn, took several photos, there were hundreds of visitors and a kind of scavenger hunt for children in the space behind one of the goals. I sat on the chairs and imagined how fantastic it would be one day to see high-level players parade their football there, meters in front.
It’s worth a visit, just as it’s worth visiting Roland Garros, the venue for one of tennis’ Grand Slams, another stop of mine in the City of Lights.
I used the adjective fantastic and I repeat it: fantastic on a spring night with a mild and dry climate, it was for the 48,853 lucky people who witnessed “on site” the spectacle shown from beginning to end by the French and German teams at Parque dos Príncipes. Majestic football.
(A parenthesis: the stadium, built in 1897 and home to PSG since 1974, is so called because in the 16th to 18th centuries the sons of the King of France played and hunted in that area.)
A match full of alternatives, with Bayern ahead, PSG’s comeback, Bayern’s draw, PSG’s provisional rout (5-2), Bayern’s reaction, insufficient for equality but enough to create immense expectations for the return match, in Germany.
Very few missed passes, precise throws, well-articulated attacks, quality counterattacks, goals galore, fouls galore. Minimal complaints to arbitration, loyalty in ball disputes, zero catimba or wax. It’s enough to smile from side to side for 90 minutes plus extra time.
Will the Libertadores, the “Champions of South America”, have a semi-final this year at this level of competition and artillery, with nine goals? It’s difficult to feed this hope when, when looking at the 2025 semi-finals, the most recent ones (Flamengo x Racing and Palmeiras x LDU), all four games combined had one goal less than PSG x Bayern.
It is necessary to go back five decades in time, to 1976, for our first 5-4. The Libertadores of that year had, in the group stage, a Cruzeiro 5 x 4 Internacional at Mineirão, in Belo Horizonte.
Joãozinho and Palhinha, with two goals each, led Raposa to victory against the Colorado of Chilean defender Elias Figueroa and a young Paulo Roberto Falcão, the future King of Rome. Nelinho, from a penalty, in the 40th minute of the second half, scored the ninth goal of this historic match, seen at the Governador Magalhães Pinto stadium by 65,463 people.
Perhaps the best team Cruzeiro ever had, led by Zezé Moreira (1907-1998), after going 7-1 in the semi-finals at Alianza de Lima, they defeated River Plate in the final, on a neutral ground, in Chile, in an electrifying 3-2 (five balls in the net!), with the title-winning goal, by Joãozinho, two minutes from the end.
Then, 24 years later, in the year that ended the 20th century, world champion Corinthians (from Dida, Vampeta, Ricardinho, Marcelinho Carioca and Edílson Capetinha) would record another 5-4 at the Pacaembu stadium, in São Paulo, with Paraguayan Olimpia as their opponents in the group stage. Luizão scored three goals.
And more recently, in 2019, also in the group stage, Universidad de Concepción, who won the game, and Sporting Cristal, from Peru, repeated this score in a match in Chile.
In other words, we have already achieved, South American football, to be on par with today’s Champions League. We need to take this level of emotion, a 5-4, to an acute phase, to a semi-final.
