A flawless first-half performance gave Bayern Munich the edge in a brilliant away win against PSG in the Champions League.
The Bavarians have now won each of their 16 games across all competitions to start the 2025-26 season. It felt like this could be the end of the run: playing away, against the reigning Champions League winners, who are also leading Ligue 1 and had won each of their three European matches so far.
But Vincent Kompany had other ideas as he ran circles around Luis Enrique in the first half and saw his side hold on to a one-goal lead to win all three points at Parc des Princes. Here’s how he did it.
How did Bayern Munich beat PSG?
Creating gaps by manipulating the defence
Bayern, who have basically mastered man-to-man pressing over the last year or so, turned this very concept against PSG to hurt them.
They are usually relentless in pressure but actually started the game more cautiously tonight: 19.0 PPDA from kick-off until the first goal.
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Interestingly enough though, they fed off the energy they got after scoring the opener and instead of retracting due to playing away and already having a 1-0 advantage, only then did they truly step up the lines (9.6 PPDA from the opener until half-time).
Vincent Kompany’s men had a lot of interchanges within their positional structure and tried to move PSG’s defenders around. Early on, right-back Konrad Laimer was actually spearheading their offensive line at one point as a striker – ahead of Harry Kane.
Watching the game, you couldn’t really identify Bayern’s players in their main positions. You tell me if this looks like their base 4-2-3-1 formation.
Kane, as usual, dropped deep to help articulate plays and had Marquinhos in doubt as to whether he should follow him or hold his ground. Willian Pacho had his eyes on Michael Olise all first half long, jumping up to meet him when he cut inside with no regard for the defensive line.
Aleksandar Pavlovic formed the double pivot with Joshua Kimmich but made overlapping runs down the left hand side time and time again, taking Warren Zaire-Emery with him and catching Vitinha’s attention.
All that movement made it possible for Luis Diaz, Michael Olise and Serge Gnabry to run into spaces that suddenly appeared in the heart of PSG’s defence. Diaz scored both of their goals, Olise missed a sitter in the lead-up to the opener and Gnabry hit the post once. Everyone benefitted from their style of play.
Mix of Bayern merits and PSG mistakes
Bayern do deserve a lot of credit for manufacturing opportunities by messing around with PSG’s defenders. But at the same time, Luis Enrique’s men had very poor collective and individual performances.
There were a lot of lazy passes in the beginning of the match – for both sides. It didn’t take long until one of those resulted in a dangerous situation, as the Bavarians scored after a bad pass from Pacho that Ousmane Dembele couldn’t control.
The French side also inexplicably left acres of space in their own half. Achraf Hakimi would often bomb forward and just stay there. That in itself is not really a problem if someone is there to cover for him. However, nobody did that.
At one point, Luis Diaz was completely on his own waiting for a long ball to come so that he could be through on goal. A few minutes later, Nuno Mendes sat deep by himself while all the other three defenders were lined up diagonally ahead of him, almost like a staircase. Kane recognized the space and relocated to the left, waiting for a pass that never came.
PSG’s defensive line looked absolutely lost and dismantled. Bayern deserve credit for creating these collapses, but Luis Enrique never seemed to know how to fix it at any time. Luckily for the Parisians, they didn’t have to worry about much of that in the second half.
Post-red card notes
That is because Luis Diaz managed to get himself sent off after scoring a brace for a strong challenge on Hakimi. The red card changed the outlook of the game and conditioned the second half.
At that point, there was not much going on other than PSG well established in the attacking half while Bayern were holding on for dear life.
| Match stats | PSG | Bayern |
|---|---|---|
| Possession | 71% | 29% |
| Shots (on target) | 25 (9) | 9 (5) |
| Big chances | 3 | 4 |
Still, there were some interesting things that are worth taking a closer look at. Early on, Dayot Upamecano performed two roles at once, trying to compensate for being one-man down.
The French defender would often take a step forward and act 50/50 as the right-centre back and the right-centre-midfielder while Joshua Kimmich pressed Vitinha – as he did for the whole night. The Bavarians marked these situations in a 4-3-2 that would turn in a 3-4-2 in an attempt to ’emulate’ a 4-4-2 but with nine men.
Lastly, PSG’s goal had a nice dynamic. They relied heavily on long shots and crosses in the second half, but scored thanks to a well-orchestrated move.
Goncalo Ramos and Joao Neves both ‘sandwiched’ Upamecano, with the striker almost performing a basketball screen as to block the centre-back so that the midfielder could go behind him and find space to shoot. He did and there was nothing random about that – it wasn’t just crossing for the sake of crossing.
Ultimately, the game was decided in the first half – and judging the first 45 minutes alone, Bayern were fully deserving of the win. Incredible performance away from home against one of the best teams in the world, who have looked more and more mortal over the last few months.