Mats Hummels, 35 years old, printed his character and intuition on every square meter that Kylian Mbappé stepped on, ten years younger than his guardian, much more powerful but incapable of overcoming the siege. France’s most famous athlete appeared almost melancholic on the day of his farewell to the Parc des Princes with a title at stake. History said that Dortmund had never won in Paris because they had never scored a goal either. It was Hummels himself who was in charge of breaking tradition with a header that put the Westfalia team in the Wembley final. Forced to overcome the 1-0 deficit in the first leg, PSG finished the semi-final without scoring a single goal.
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Gianluigi Donnarumma, Achraf Hakimi, Nuno Mendes, Marquinhos, Beraldo, Vitor Ferreira, Fabián (Marco Asensio, min. 63), Warren Zaïre-Emery, Goncalo Ramos (Bradley Barcola, min. 63), Ousmane Dembélé and Kylian Mbappe
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Gregor Kobel, Julian Ryerson, Hummels, Ian Maatsen, Nico Schlotterbeck, Jadon Sancho (Niklas Süle, min. 67), Karim Adeyemi (Marco Reus, min. 56), M. Sabitzer, Emre Can, Brandt (Felix NMecha, min. 84) and Füllkrug
Goals 0-1 min. 50: Hummels.
Referee Daniele Orsato
Yellow cards M. Sabitzer (min. 64), Hummels (min. 65), Ousmane Dembélé (min. 75) and Achraf Hakimi (min. 83)
PSG bravely came out to press. To the man, taking risks, as the canons of football progressivism dictate. Dembelé went for Maatsen, Mbappé hindered Hummels, Ramos for Schlötterbeck, Fabián for Can, Vitinha for Brandt, and so on. The modernist structure was textbook and the players executed it with discipline. The problem was that all the courage they put into the pressure vanished when they recovered the ball. Then the only one who dared to offer himself and pass the ball through the crowded central lanes was Vitinha. The best player in the first leg was the one who anticipated the most, the one who stole the most, and the one who invented the best plays for the French team. Around them, however, a desert opened up. Mbappé, Ramos, Dembelé or Zaïre were rarely offered in the middle, and his ladder lacked steps to reach the top.
There were few, and on few occasions, the PSG footballers who during the first half ventured where Hummels, Schlötterbeck and Can formed the hard core of the German resistance. The combativeness of the Dortmund players managed to dissuade Mbappé and his teammates that if they marched through the middle, where the rivals were closest, it would be impossible to advance. This had two correlative effects. First, PSG began to channel all attacks towards the wings. Twisting and turning towards Dembelé and Hakimi on the right, and Mbappé on the left. Second, the defenders began to feel less threatened, more secure, and more hopeful that their sacrifices would bear fruit. The circle became vicious for PSG, since the goal is in the middle, not on the wings, the centers were evacuated by the Dortmund defenders, and there was no way for Dembelé or Mbappé to dribble past as many rivals as they were staggered to prevent their access to the area.
Mbappé’s performance had symbolic weight. By potential, he is the most gifted forward there is. His qualities are supposed to give him leadership. It is the law of football that the player who earns the most on the team is because he deserves it and everything he does on the grass is inexorably exemplary. The truth is that in the first quarter of an hour Mbappé received four balls that he judged favorable to turn and face, and on all four occasions Hummels beat him. The old central defender, who is experiencing a season of rebirth after years of rigidity, deployed the entire manual of the good anticipator. He had the instinct to discover the choice of his opponent, he was thrown to go pressure him up to 70 meters from his goal, and when the first action did not favor him he used resources, strength, cunning, ingenuity. The duel of these two very significant men permeated the surrounding air. Of pessimism among the blues and confidence among the yellows.
The saddest farewell
Mbappé’s gestural language, barely subversive against adversity, silenced the fans. There are adored players, disowned players, and simply beloved players. In Paris Mbappé has been part of the last category. The fact that since 2020 he has regularly stated that he had a way out in his ideal horizon, did not contribute to the fans giving him their unconditional devotion. Much less than a year ago the player openly declared that he would leave at the end of this season, in the middle of a dispute with Real Madrid that has not stopped echoing with pain in the proud stands of the Auteuil curve. There was a feeling among the crowd that for the most forceful striker that French football has ever produced, Paris was never anything more than a mere place of passage. The second leg of the semi-final against Dortmund was composed as a farewell. The saddest imaginable for the star and his fans, progressively distanced over the months until the final silence.
It took Mbappé 80 minutes to finish on goal and Kobel deflected his shot. It was just an indication of the obfuscation that Luis Enrique’s team suffered with the ball. Vitinha achieved the first shot on target in the 41st minute. The bad symptoms accumulated from the first play to the second half, including a counterattack by Adeyemi that Donnarumma deflected in one-on-one. PSG came out of the break with more vigor but at the first opportunity Adeyemi counterattacked and caused a corner. Prelude to Hummels’ goal, a header with Beraldo’s indecisive opposition, which led to the score being 0-1 and the torment of the local players. The siege continued for the remainder of the game.
Zaïre, Mbappé, Mendes, and Lee all hit the woodwork with their shots. But they barely found any finishing opportunities behind the defenders. The Dortmund block resisted with the serenity of Mats Hummels, a true hero in the depressed home that Mbappé will no longer frequent.
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