The last time they crossed paths, Vincent Kompany was on his way in and Luis Enrique was on his way out. It was late November at the Allianz Arena and Bayern Munich’s new manager waited by the press room while his opposite number at Paris Saint-Germain spoke to the media; as he listened in, he could hardly believe what he heard. “It was completely over the top,” Kompany recalled in Atlanta when he again followed Luis Enrique into a chair lined up before the cameras, and before another big night, seven months later and more than 7,000 miles away. “Now we’re talking about the same game from a totally different perspective; it’s interesting to press fast forward and see how much things can change.”
That night, Bayern beat PSG 1-0 in the Champions League. Five games into the competition, PSG had won just once, against Girona at the Parc des Princes and that was their third loss, fear growing that even with the new, extended format they might not get out of the group. “I heard all these big statements: ‘it’s all over’,” Kompany said. “Most games they should win 5-0 and somehow it’s 1-1, or they lose and it didn’t reflect their dominance. You look at the team now, the evolution, and it’s nice to see that in those moments the consistency paid off. He was strong enough to continue. And that’s not a compliment, that’s just a fact.”
