Take a breath, shake your head, laugh in disbelief and then start counting the days until the second leg of Paris Saint-Germain's epic Champions League semifinal against Bayern Munich next Wednesday, because the two European giants just produced one of the greatest games of football you'll ever see. And who knows, it might be just as good when they clash again in the Allianz Arena because these are two teams that simply do not know how to take a backward step.
A 5-4 final score in Paris in PSG's favour against the Bundesliga champions seems a ridiculous scoreline after just 90 minutes. Over two legs, 5-4 sounds like a reasonable outcome, but one game?
Yet when two teams with some of the best -- maybe even the best -- attacking players take each other on, it can become a battle of wills and a contest of egos, when the goalscorers and creators shake off any defensive responsibilities and just play as though they are back in the school yard, showing off their skills with no concern about the consequences.
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PSG are accustomed to dominating every game they play, but so are Bayern -- this was only their third defeat in 50 games this season, having won 43 of those fixtures -- so the natural instinct most teams have, opting for damage limitation when the wheels are coming off, just doesn't apply to these two sides. And there were certainly defensive elements of this game that will infuriate PSG coach Luis Enrique and Bayern's Vincent Kompany, whose touchline ban forced him to watch the game from the stands.
Clarence Seedorf, a four-time Champions League winner with Ajax, Real Madrid and AC Milan, stressed the importance of balancing defence and attack in his role as an analyst for TNT Sports, saying, "Once upon a time defending was an art and it has to be part of the game. Without it, you can't win this competition. PSG scored five goals against one of the best teams in the world, but when the final comes around, they could be watching it at home because they gave away far too many chances for Bayern to score."
Maybe Seedorf is wrong. If defending is your thing, watch Atlético Madrid vs. Arsenal in the first leg of the other semifinal on Wednesday, and then decide which is the best approach or more entertaining.
Ale Moreno was impressed to see Bayern Munich keep the tie against PSG alive after falling 5-2 down in Paris.
PSG and Bayern played football from the gods at Parc des Princes and their best attacking players showcased their brilliance.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored two stunning goals for PSG, Michael Olise hit a sensational goal for Bayern and reigning Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembélé scored two, but missed even more.
Harry Kane took his Bayern goals tally this season to 54 in all competitions with his first-half penalty and Luis DÃaz, a player Liverpool will surely regret offloading last summer, scored his Bayern goal of the season to make it 5-4 just ten minutes after PSG looked to have sealed the tie by moving 5-2 ahead.
Nobody would have believed that a Champions League knockout tie could come close to matching the drama and unpredictability of Inter Milan's 4-3 semifinal second-leg win against Barcelona in the San Siro last season, but less than 12 months later, PSG and Bayern have topped it.
Only one Champions League knockout game -- Bayern's 8-2 win against Barcelona in the 2019-20 quarterfinal -- has delivered more goals over 90 minutes than this tie, but that ten-goal epic was a one-off tie played behind closed doors in Lisbon during the pandemic-affected season, so the absence of supporters denied that game the joy and anguish experienced by the fans in Paris.
And even though he saw his team concede five goals, Kompany was not complaining about the performance of his side after the game.
"Normally after conceding five goals away from home in the Champions League you are out," Kompany said. "But we created so many chances that we could have scored more than we did.
"You've seen a lot of good defending today, intense duels, but the margins are so little. You can either go full on or retreat when you are against it like when we were 5-2 down, but the second way doesn't work with this level of players, so you just keep going."
If Kompany sticks to that philosophy in Munich for the second leg, when PSG will be slight favourites because of their one-goal advantage, then we can expect another immense, end-to-end contest because Luis Enrique's PSG only play with their foot firmly on the pedal.
"I think next week will be the same crazy game, two teams that want to score," PSG captain Marquinhos said. "We need to go there with the same mentality and personality so we can get the same amazing job done. We need a lot of effort to win.
"Every football fan loves a game like that. It was a crazy game, two teams who play similar, aggressive and intense. We are so happy that we were able to come away with the win."
Next week will carry a different kind of pressure, though, because there will be no more second chances. Both sides will review their flaws from the first leg and attempt to iron them out before the clash at the Allianz in Munich, but what happens will decide which team goes through the final in Budapest on May 30.
So who will it be? PSG one step closer to back-to-back Champions Leagues or Bayern closing on their seventh Champions League and goalscoring talisman Kane moving to within touching distance of his first?
"There were nine goals today, but it's one goal between us and we go to the Allianz now and it's all about who takes their moments next week," Kane told TNT. "There is lots of pride at getting back to 5-4, though, because we fought and fought and clawed our way back into the game.
"It was the best players in the world going at it, so when that happens, sometimes the attackers are going to come out on top."
If the same happens next week, we are in for another unforgettable classic.
