Dembele Vows More Thrills After Historic Champions League Semifinal

Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembele has pledged that his team will maintain their attacking approach as they prepare for the second leg of their Champions League semifinal against Bayern Munich. PSG secured a narrow 5-4 victory in a thrilling first leg at the Parc des Princes, marking the highest-scoring semifinal in the competition's history and equaling the record for the European Cup era, set by Rangers and Eintracht Frankfurt in 1959-60.

Bayern Munich took an early lead through Harry Kane’s 17th-minute penalty, but PSG responded with goals from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Joao Neves. Michael Olise leveled the score before Dembele converted a contentious penalty just before halftime. Kvaratskhelia and Dembele added to their tallies in the second half, but Dayot Upamecano and Luis Diaz kept Bayern in contention with late strikes.

Dembele described the match as "incredible" and promised more excitement in the return leg. "Two great teams that attack, that don’t hesitate," he told Canal+. "We’re happy with the result, even if at 5-2 we stopped playing a bit. We were lacking a bit of everything. We’re going to Munich to win and qualify. We’re not going to change our philosophy—we’re going to attack, they’re going to attack."

PSG captain Marquinhos, who made his 120th Champions League appearance—tying Roberto Carlos as the most-capped Brazilian in the competition—praised the spectacle. "All football fans loved watching this match," he said. "On the pitch, it was a pleasure to play this game. These are the matches we dream about all year. Both teams have this mentality of never giving up, of always pushing forward."

Looking ahead to the second leg, Marquinhos told Amazon Prime he anticipates another "crazy" encounter. "Two teams that want to win—we need to go there with the same mentality, same personality, so we can do an amazing job there, like we did here. We need a lot of effort."