Eric Chupo-Moting continued his superb goal-scoring form to help Bayern Munich produce one of the most comfortable football scores of the midweek action in the Champions League. Leading 1-0 after the first leg in Paris, the 33-year-old scored the first goal in the Bundesliga giants’ 2-0 second-leg victory, advancing them to the quarter-finals. The Cameroon international took advantage of a defensive blunder by 17-year-old substitute El Chadaille Bitshiabu to score just after the hour mark, before Serge Gnabry sealed another European defeat for the big-spending French side.
Bitshiabu, who had only come on at halftime to replace Nordi Mukiele – who had only lasted nine minutes after replacing the injured Marquinhos – attempted to play out from left-back but placed Marco Verratti under pressure and was robbed by Thomas Muller. Muller passed to Leon Goretzka, who drew Gianluigi Donnarumma before rolling a pass to his left for Choupo-17th Moting’s goal of the season.
In the 52nd minute, the former Stoke striker glanced Jamal Musiala’s tempting curling pass into the bottom right corner, only for VAR to rule it out owing to offside against Muller, who was interfering as he attempted to play the ball. While Choupo-Moting provided the crucial blow, the hosts – and especially goalkeeper Yann Sommer – were grateful to Matthijs de Ligt, who cleared a Ferreira Vitinha shot off the line shortly before halftime. Sommer attempted to dribble out of his area, but Achraf Hakimi forced him to pass the ball to Vitinha, who rolled a shot past the goalkeeper and into an empty net, only for the Holland international to dive in and hook.
Prior to that, PSG had lost captain Marquinhos to injury, allowing the club’s record goalscorer Kylian Mbappe to take the armband, but the added responsibility failed to motivate the France striker to heroics. He came the closest to scoring all night in the 14th minute when he had the ball in the net but the whistle had already gone for a foul after colliding with Sommer on the edge of the penalty area. Bayern’s defensive durability in Europe this season – this was their seventh clean sheet in eight matches – meant that even a PSG team boasting Mbappe and Lionel Messi faltered, as PSG failed to advance to the last 16 for the fifth time in seven years.
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