Wayne Rooney and Clarence Seedorf slaughter 'schoolboy' defending in PSG-Bayern thriller

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Martin Macdonald | Author

It was one of the most spectacular matches of the season but not everyone was full of praise for Paris Saint-Germain versus Bayern Munich.

Neutrals were treated to a feast in the Champions League semi-final between the two European giants, who played out a nine-goal thriller on Tuesday evening.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele were in sublime form for the hosts as they both scored two each, while Joao Neves also got on the scoresheet for the Parisians.

There were four different scorers for Bayern: Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Dayot Upamecano and Luis Diaz.

Vincent Kompany's side actually took the lead in the game through Kane's penalty but by the 60th minute, the game had turned on its head completely, with PSG leading 5-2.

You would be forgiven for expecting Luis Enrique to instruct his players to tighten things up after gaining that lead, but the play continued to resemble a basketball game and Bayern scored two in three minutes after the hour to make it 5-4, ensuring there would be all to play for in the second leg.

While the attacking play was sensational, nine goals were conceded on the night, and Wayne Rooney, on punditry duties for Amazon, said it was "schoolboy" stuff.

“I think Luis Enrique is a top coach so when they had the advantage at 5-2, I think then he should have said, ‘right, let’s shut up shop, let’s get behind the ball, make it hard, see the tie out’, potentially that would’ve got them to the final but they didn’t, they went for more goals.

“Vincent Kompany has got a very attack-minded team, and I think you could clearly see they haven’t worked that much on defending because some of the goals we’ve seen are schoolboy goals.

“At this level, we’ve seen some brilliant but immature defending, which is crazy. I’d love to play in a game like that but I used to pride myself on defending so I think I would’ve been upset that we conceded that many goals.

“I think overall going into the game next week, I’d be much happier being Bayern Munich. To leave here with only a goal [behind], knowing that you can score goals against PSG, you can tighten it up a little bit, I think the advantage is with them [Bayern].”

What played out led Champions League legend Clarence Seedorf to suggest that Arsenal are perhaps the best-equipped team to win the competition due to their outstanding defensive record.

In their 12 matches played so far, from the league phase through to the quarter-finals, they have conceded just five goals, averaging 0.42 per game.

“Ask the goalkeepers if they’re happy. They are not happy, a clean sheet was always sacred for goalkeepers," Seedorf said of PSG-Bayern.

“We have seen a team like Arsenal making that difference this year, having so many clean sheets and coming all the way.

“So if I had to point out one team now, that would be capable to actually bring it home because of that capacity, actually it’s Arsenal.”

Arsenal take on Atletico Madrid in the second Champions League semi-final tonight, still hoping to win the competition for the first time in their history.

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