Wayne Rooney is backing Paris Saint-Germain to beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final on Sunday night.
Rooney, who won the competition during his days at Manchester United, is eagerly awaiting the clash of the European heavyweights.
Despite PSG boasting Neymar and Kylian Mbappe among their ranks, most onlookers consider Bayern to be favourites to win their sixth European Cup.
But Rooney, who currently plays for Championship outfit Derby County, ‘has a feeling’ PSG will upset the odds and win a first Champions League title.
‘Bayern have the advantage that most of their starting line-up have played in the Champions League final before and will know how to handle the mental side,’ Rooney told The Times. ‘But I have a feeling for PSG.
‘It will be an open game, between two teams who are very good at attacking and will cause problems for each other. It will be a shoot-out and I think with Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Ángel Di María, PSG will exploit the high line that Bayern play. They will get chances and take them — in a way that, in the semi-finals, Lyons did not.
‘PSG have the better balance. Defensively they are quite solid, more so than their opposition. For Bayern it is not as simple as just abandoning that high line for one game because it’s key to how they play.
‘They have a very good press, which involves Robert Lewandowski showing a centre back to one side and then Serge Gnabry or Ivan Perisic pressing and Thomas Müller coming in from behind. The midfielders then back that press up. But for it all to work, they need their back four high otherwise the gaps will be too big.
‘I have no doubt that press will create chances for Bayern — but PSG are good enough in possession to deal with it most of the time and once they play through it there will be opportunities for their attackers to run in behind.
‘The run that hurts Bayern could be a deep run, involving Mbappé dragging defenders out to the side and Di María coming through from a deeper position.
‘Mbappé is so quick and he scores goals. He is the type of player who gets inside defenders’ heads. Even just a little bit of doubt — “if he gets in behind, we’re in trouble here” — can have a big effect in a game.’
The former Everton attacker suspects this could be the start of an important phase in PSG’s history.
Rooney added: ‘This is the prize that both teams have been building their squads to win over a period of years, but also the prize PSG’s owners are expecting. Victory would be significant for them.
‘PSG are a massive club with great players but if you asked most footballers if they would rather go there or to Real Madrid, nine out of ten would say Real Madrid. Yet win the Champions League and it gives you that extra pulling power to bring talent in.
‘When you lift that trophy as a player, you know you have won the hardest of all club tournaments, the biggest you can win, and it is a release. It gives you so much confidence.
‘If PSG win in Lisbon tonight I could see it being the start of something and them winning again.’
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