LISBON — The most unusual season in the history of the European Cup has ended with a familiar name on the trophy. Bayern Munich beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in Lisbon on Sunday night to win their sixth Champions League title, completing the competition’s first ever closed-door final tournament.
The decisive goal came in the 59th minute, and it carried its own story: Kingsley Coman, a Parisian who left PSG as a teenager, headed in Joshua Kimmich’s cross against the club that let him go. Bayern have won every match they have played in this season’s competition — eleven victories from eleven games, a record no champion has managed before.
For PSG, the defeat extends a painful pattern. The French club, transformed by Qatari ownership since 2011, were playing in their first final and had their chances, with Neymar and Kylian Mbappé both denied by goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Nine years of investment have produced domestic dominance but not the European crown the project was built to win.
The final was the centrepiece of an improvised solution. When the pandemic halted the season in March, UEFA compressed the last rounds into a twelve-day mini-tournament in Lisbon, with single-leg quarter-finals and no spectators. Organisers are already calling it a template they hope never to need again.
Bayern’s victory also seals a treble — Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League — for the second time in seven years. It was won, fittingly for this strangest of seasons, in front of empty seats.
Media-Society.com is a press network association based in Spain, founded in 2020. More at www.media-society.com.
