Wayne Rooney slams 'immature defending' in PSG's 5-4 Champions League victory over Bayern Munich
PSG emerged 5-4 victors against Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final at the Parc des Princes.
In the process Luis Enrique managed to break a record that had previously been held by Pep Guardiola by becoming the manager to get 50 wins in the competition in the fewest number of games.
The Parisian’s five goals came from Joao Neves, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele, with the latter two getting a brace each to give them the advantage going into the second leg.
Bayern are not out of this game and will be confident they can overcome this one-goal deficit after they managed to score four in Paris through Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Dayot Upamecano and Luis Diaz.
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The match was thoroughly entertaining for the neutral; however, both Clarence Seedorf and Wayne Rooney were critical of both sides post-match on Amazon Prime.
The former Manchester United star said: “Both teams have got so much quality at the top end of the pitch that they probably forget to defend a little bit, and that means we get to enjoy some great goals.
“Luis Enrique is a top coach, so when they get the advantage of 5-2, he should have said, ‘Right, let’s shut up shop and get behind the ball and make it hard. See the tie-out.' And then that is potentially us through to the final.
“But they didn't; they went for more goals. Vincent Kompany, he’s obviously got a very attack-minded team.
“I think you can clearly see they haven’t worked much on defending. Some of the goals are schoolboy goals.
“At this level we’ve seen some brilliance, but we saw some immature defending, which is crazy.
“I’d love to play in a game like that, but I used to pride myself on defending as well, so I think I’d be upset if we conceded that many goals.
“Overall, going into the game next week, I’d be much happier being Bayern Munich. To leave here, with only a goal [down], knowing that you can score goals against PSG, I think the advantage is with them.”
PSG would create an xG of 1.91 from their 12 shots, with five of those all being on target, a clinical display from the French side; meanwhile, Bayern would create an xG of 2.51 from their 10 shots, with eight of these being on target.
Both sides approached the game with a mentality focusing on going forward, but that did not mean they abandoned their defensive duties; however, the Dutch international on punditry duty was not impressed.
Seedorf said: “There is no way you can win the Champions League if you don't know how to defend.
"You would expect the minimum of defending.
“The clean sheet was always sacred, and we’ve seen a team like Arsenal making that difference this year, having so many clean sheets. If I have to point out one team who could actually be capable of bringing it home based on that capacity, it’s Arsenal.”
The pair may find the Arsenal and Atletico Madrid semi-final more pleasing, as there is a belief that both sides will approach the game in a more defensive manner, even if Diego Simeone’s side have evolved to be more progressive since he reached the Champions League final in 2014.
Topics: Wayne Rooney, Champions League, Football News, Football, PSG, Bayern Munich
Brendan McGilligan