Breaking the silence beating a drum, his Bayern Munich jersey replaced by a “Champions of Europe” T-shirt, Joshua Kimmich wanted to savor the scene of glory.
Two hours after setting up the goal that secured Bayern’s sixth European Cup, Kimmich emerged from the tunnel to walk back onto the empty confetti-covered pitch where his team had beaten Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 on Sunday night.
Soon he was joined, sitting in the center circle, by David Alaba, the winners’ medal around his bare chest, and Serge Gnabry in a Bayern hat, swigging from a bottle.
Photo: AFP
Before long the lights went out on the Luz stadium. In the near-darkness of the Lisbon stadium, the players remained in celebration and contemplation.
“When you win a title like this with brothers on the pitch, that’s the maximum you can ask for,” Kimmich had said shortly after the full-time whistle.
On a continent where more than 200,000 have died from COVID-19, the longest and most disrupted of peacetime men’s European soccer seasons ended in emptiness and near silence.
Only a few hundred people were allowed into the Benfica stadium, because of pandemic restrictions, to see PSG academy graduate Kingsley Coman head in the winner from Kimmich’s cross in the 59th minute.
While Bayern won its first continental final since 2013, PSG has yet to lift the European Cup despite spending more than US$1 billion on players in the nine years under Qatari ownership.
More than US$500 million was spent on Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Angel Di Maria, but PSG looked far from formidable or threatening against the Bavarian club that was more assured than the first-time European Cup finalists.
As the front three were frustrated in front of goal, it was instead a left winger who plays in Neymar’s position, was born in Paris and started his career at PSG, who inflicted the blow.
It was Gnabry attacking down the right that unpicked the PSG defense before passing to Thomas Muller. The forward deftly clipped the ball back to Kimmich, who spotted Coman running unchecked into the penalty area.
The Frenchman netted a 43rd goal of a perfect European campaign that has seen Bayern become the first team to win all 11 Champions League matches.
“I feel a lot of joy, but also sadness for PSG,” said Coman, who left his boyhood club in 2014 — first for Juventus — after feeling undervalued. “It hurts my heart a bit.”
Bayern join deposed champions Liverpool as six-time champions of Europe, only behind AC Milan (seven) and Real Madrid (13). It was the first final to end 1-0 since Real Madrid beat Juventus in 1998, which was also the last final to feature teams who qualified as domestic champions.
A night when PSG fans hoped to party on the Champs-Elysees ended with dozens clashing with French riot police.
Almost 150 people were arrested as PSG fans set cars ablaze, smashed shop windows and clashed with police in the French capital, police said yesterday.
The violence occurred around the Parc des Princes stadium and on the Champs-Elysees avenue during and after the match, police said on Twitter.
Thousands of supporters had gathered at the Parc des Princes to cheer on PSG, lighting flares and chanting as they watched the game on a big screen.
The trouble lasted several hours, as groups of fans threw bottles and fireworks at police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, a reporter said.
On the Champs-Elysees, vehicles were set on fire, windows broken and shops vandalized.
Police said that 148 people were arrested “in particular for damage, violence or throwing projectiles.”
French Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin said that 16 police officers were injured, 12 shops attacked and about 15 vehicles damaged overnight.
In a tweet on Sunday night, he condemned the “unacceptable” violence and thanked the police who arrested “small violent groups, troublemakers.”
Police said that 404 people were stopped for not wearing face masks as part of disease prevention regulations.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had earlier called for “mature celebrations” should PSG beat Bayern, after supporters clashed with police following their 3-0 win over RB Leipzig in the semi-finals.
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