PSG coach Enrique predicts more thrills in return leg of CL semis after nine-goal spectacle against Bayern

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) coach Luis Enrique admitted his team will likely need to score several more goals away to Bayern Munich next week to be sure of reaching another Champions League final after a remarkable 5-4 victory in the first leg of their semi-final on Tuesday.

“I just asked my staff how many goals they thought we would need next week and we all think we will need to score at least three,” said the Spaniard, who masterminded PSG’s 5-0 triumph over Inter Milan in last season’s final.

That allowed them to win the Champions League for the first time in their history and next Wednesday’s semi-final second leg will be their first visit to the Allianz Arena since then.

“Bayern will of course be in their stadium and will be even stronger with their fans behind them but going back there will bring back beautiful memories for us. We want to have the same mentality and will go out to try to win the game.”

Tuesday’s thriller was the highest scoring semi-final match in the modern Champions League era -- you have to go back to 1960 to find the last game as prolific at this stage of the European Cup.

That was a 6-3 win for Eintracht Frankfurt away to Rangers, before the Germans lost 7-3 in the final to Alfredo di Stefano’s Real Madrid.

“The intensity of the game throughout was exceptional,” said Luis Enrique.

“We won it and we are very pleased, but at 5-2 we thought we could have had a better result.

“We desverved to win, but we also deserved to draw and lose!”

A crazy first-half at the Parc des Princes saw Harry Kane give Bayern the lead with an early penalty, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Joao Neves strike for the hosts and Michael Olise then make it 2-2, only for an Ousmane Dembele penalty to put PSG back ahead at the interval.

Kvaratskhelia and Dembele then both scored for PSG before the hour mark, leaving them seemingly out of sight at 5-2, but Dayot Upamecano and Luis Diaz pulled goals back for Bayern.

That ensures it will be game on next week in Munich, and there is a strong chance this tie could become the most prolific ever in the Champions League.

The record for most goals in a two-legged tie in Europe’s elite club competition is 13, including in last season’s semi-final in which Inter beat Barcelona 7-6 on aggregate.

“I was proud of how we reacted at 5-2. It was incredible how the players fought back,” said Bayern coach Vincent Kompany, who had to watch from the stands due to suspension, an experience he described as a “catastrophe”.

Asked about the attacking approach of the two teams, he added: “Football is a bit like religion -- people believe what they believe, and there is not one style of play that is superior to another.

“What happened today was a clash of two similar ideas -- normally in these situations you have one team that starts to sit back a bit but neither team wanted to do that and that is why the match was how it was,” he said.

Bayern will hope to overturn their one-goal deficit next week as they look to reach a first Champions League final since 2020. “It can’t come quick enough,” Kompany said of the return leg.

“There is not much in it and we just need to win the game. The weight of our stadium can make a difference. It is a legendary venue where Bayern have had so many great successes.”

Meanwhile, it was possibly the wildest match in Champions League history and may just change some long-held perceptions about soccer.

Paris Saint-Germain’s 5-4 win against Bayern Munich felt more like an NBA game than a traditional soccer match and set new goal-scoring records for the sport’s biggest club tournament.

And it might not be just a one-off.

The thrilling first leg of the semifinals in Paris points toward a growing trend as some coaches embrace a high-risk, high-reward strategy that is leaving fans breathless.

Despite being the world’s most popular sport, soccer has been criticized, in the United States in particular, because of the low-scoring nature of games, which can result in single-goal victories or even goalless ties over 90 minutes of play.

Agencies