
Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich face off in the Champions League semifinal, following a thrilling 5-4 first leg. The winner will meet either Arsenal or Atletico Madrid in the final on May 30 in Budapest.
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Champions League semifinals are often more memorable than the title matches. One year ago, an exciting Inter Milan-Barcelona contest was widely praised like the PSG-Bayern opener has been. A 3-3 first leg in Barcelona was just an appetizer for Interâs roller coaster 4-3 win in extra time at San Siro. In 2022, to deny victory. Two goals forced extra time that was settled by âs penalty for a 3-1 win. The wild first leg had finished in Manchester. A vintage knockout phase in 2019 was capped by astonishing comebacks on back-to-back nights in the semifinal second legs by and It is perhaps eight years since a truly compelling back-and-forth final, when substitute âs goals â the first an iconic bicycle kick â lifted over Liverpool in Kyiv. While PSG excelled in the final last year, the was never competitive.
The first leg ended in a dramatic 5-4 victory for PSG, with the second leg set to take place in Munich.
The Champions League final is scheduled for May 30 at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.
The winner of the PSG vs Bayern semifinal will face either Arsenal or Atletico Madrid in the final.
Atletico Madrid has lost five of its 15 Champions League games this season, including a 4-0 loss to Arsenal.



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Munich was the scene of PSG's finest game last season against Inter to fulfill its Qatari owners' quest to become European champion for the first time. The Allianz Arena is also where six-time champion Bayern won all six home games in the Champions League this season, scoring 20 goals including four past Real Madrid in a quarterfinals, second-leg thriller three weeks ago. Munich is the only candidate to host the Champions League final again in 2028. UEFA should confirm that decision in September.
Coach Diego Simeone takes his Atletico team to north London for a third game this season. Third time lucky? Atletico lost 4-0 at Arsenal in a league-phase game in October and survived a 3-2 loss at Tottenham in the second leg of the round of 16 that easily could have been a bigger margin. Atletico also started this Champions League campaign in England in September â and lost, 3-2 at Liverpool. It all adds up to five games lost by Atletico in its 15-game Champions League campaign so far, while Arsenal has the last remaining unbeaten record. Neither team has been European champion. It's 10 years since Atletico played in the last of its three finals, losing to Real Madrid, and 20 years since Arsenal lost its only final, against Barcelona.
All four semifinalists were awarded, and scored, a penalty kick last week. A fifth was awarded to Arsenal but then overturned after the referee was sent to his pitchside monitor to review replays. Since the Video Assistant Referee system made its World Cup debut in 2018, the trend in top-tier games has been to award ever more spot-kicks. None of the five decisions last week was universally praised, and the two handball incidents showed how UEFAâs view differs to many coaches, players and fans. UEFAâs director of refereeing Roberto Rosetti has previously said âwe donât like soft penaltiesâ and cautioned against âmicroscopic VAR interventionsâ â which seemed to be happening last week. For each handball, the ball first deflected from the body of, respectively, Bayernâs Alphonso Davies and Arsenalâs Ben White before contacting an arm which was not held tight to the side of their bodies. That is typically not a penalty in the English Premier League but almost certainly is in UEFA competitions. Rosetti plans to meet soon with refereeing officials from Europeâs main leagues to seek more clarity and consistency next season. \\\_ AP soccer: