Bayern chasing Champions League winning record in semi-final first leg at PSG

There’s very little to fault in Bayern’s performances so far in the current Champions League campaign. Vincent Kompany’s side have won 11 of their 12 games, only losing 3-1 in the top-of-the-table league phase clash at Arsenal in November. The Bavarians have already equalled the club record from the 2000/01 and 2019/20 seasons, when they likewise celebrated 11 wins and also lifted the famous trophy at the end of it. If the Reds emerge victorious one more time this season, it would equal the record of 12 wins set by Real Madrid in the 2001/02 competition. Read on for more important numbers ahead of the semi-final first leg at Paris Saint-Germain:

This has become something of a regular fixture for both teams. PSG and FCB are meeting in the Champions League for the 15th time already – the ninth in the last nine seasons alone. In this period, that is since the start of the 2017/18 season, only the match-up between Real Madrid and Manchester City (13 times) has been staged more frequently.

And for Bayern, the recent results whet the appetite. The German record champions have come out on top in each of the last five encounters with the club from the French capital, including the 2-1 win in Paris in November in the league phase. No other club have managed such a winning run against PSG in Europe’s premier club competition. In addition, FCB have won 14 of their last 16 European matches against teams from Ligue 1 (two defeats).

Bayern overtake Barcelona

After a one-year absence, Bayern are back among the best four teams in Europe. It’s their 14th appearance in total in this stage of the competition, moving them above FC Barcelona (13 semi-finals) and with only Real above them. The Madrid club have reached the semis no fewer than 17 times.

Such is the attacking quality on both sides, both Bayern and Paris have scored 38 goals so far in this Champions League season, the joint most in the competition. With that, PSG have already set a new club record, while the Munich men are chasing their best tally of 43 from the 2019/20 campaign. However, since the Parisians played an extra two matches in the play-offs, Bayern’s average goals per game of 3.17 is significantly better. Only two teams in the history of the competition have registered a better figure in one season: Bayern themselves, again in 2019/20 (3.91), as well as PSG in the 2017/18 edition (3.38). 

PSG’s current run in the business end of the campaign is another reason for the FCB defence to be on high alert. The holders have scored at least two goals in each of their last eight Champions League knockout games, the joint longest run of this kind in the history of the competition. The only side to have previously achieved this was Barcelona from April 2015 to 2016 – who were then coached by current PSG boss Luis Enrique.

Harry Kane was on the scoresheet in the 4-3 victory over Real Madrid in the quarter-final second leg, taking his tally for the season to 12. No other English player has ever scored so many goals in a Champions League or European Cup campaign. The Three Lions captain has also scored in five consecutive games in the competition, equalling his countryman Steven Gerrard’s record from the 2007/08 season. That also means Kane has netted in each of Bayern’s four knockout matches this season and is now going after Robert Lewandowski’s record as the only Bayern player to score in five games in the knockout stages (from 2016 to 2018).

And that’s not all. The 32-year-old has provided one assist this season too and become only the second player after Cristiano Ronaldo to register 12 or more goal involvements in three successive seasons – CR7 actually managed to do so seven years in a row from 2011 to 2018. In the current season, Kane shares second place with PSG’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Julián Álvarez of Atlético Madrid – only Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé has been directly involved in more goals (17).

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