Bayern Munich showed that a committed collective triumphs more often than an assortment of talented individuals
Around 15 minutes into the Champions League final on Sunday night, Kylian Mbappé latched on to a delicious long ball from Leandro Paredes and cut in from the left channel. To his right, Ángel Di María spotted a pocket of space on the edge of the penalty area and made a sharp diagonal run towards it. With Di María totally unmarked 18 yards out and screaming for the ball, Mbappé’s low shot was blocked by Joshua Kimmich.
Around 17 minutes from the end, with Paris Saint-Germain desperate for an equaliser, Neymar gathered the ball about 25 yards from goal. Once again Di María spotted the space, peeled around the back of Alphonso Davies and drifted towards the back post, awaiting the sort of lofted dink from which Kingsley Coman had scored the only goal of the game. Instead, with stars in his eyes and glory in his gills, Neymar blazed a shot from distance that whistled safely into the banks of empty seats at the Estádio da Luz.
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