Irrational beauty of PSG and Bayern

In the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final, Paris Saint-Germain defeated Bayern Munich 5–4 at home. The two sides’ thrilling end-to-end battle offered a visual feast for football fans around the world.  

Wang Qinbo, chief international football writer for Titan Sports, commented in his article:

“This match was, in fact, a kind of masterclass delivered by the two coaches, Luis Enrique and Vincent Kompany, to today’s football world. In an era when AI is deeply involved in training, match preparation and in-game decision-making, the primary threat to football tactics is a meticulously researched and prepared form of destruction. Teams that try to ‘build’ something become fools in the face of utilitarian football, and blind men in the face of AI-driven in-game management.

“One major reason Getafe can sit sixth in La Liga after 33 games, despite scoring only 28 goals and conceding 34, is that José Bordalás introduced a cutting-edge AI system for live analysis and decision-making last year.  

“What Enrique’s and Kompany’s teams show us, however, is that football’s beauty is founded precisely on irrationality. Only when football enters a certain ‘irrational’ state do all the reasons why it is people’s favorite sport come back to life—its unpredictability, its climaxes and repeated crescendos, the fact that the stronger side cannot be sure to win, and that only the team that performs better will prevail.

“PSG scored twice in two minutes, thunderous and overwhelming; Bayern hit back with two goals of their own within three minutes, refusing to be outdone. It’s hard to say whether both sides were collapsing in turn or taking turns to unleash their strength—but whether in the stadium or in front of a television, no one could remain unmoved by such visual impact.”