Bayern Munich beats Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 to win 6th European Cup
Lisbon: Kingsley Coman headed Bayern Munich to a sixth European Cup title, scoring against boyhood club Paris Saint-Germain to seal a 1-0 victory in the first Champions League final to be played without fans.
While Bayern won its first final since 2013 on Sunday, PSG has yet to lift the European Cup despite more than USD 1 billion being spent on players in nine years.
More than USD 500 million was spent on Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Angel Di Maria but PSG looked far from formidable or threatening against the Bavarian giants who felt more assured on European club football's biggest stage.
As the costly front three were frustrated in front of goal, it was instead a winger who was born in Paris and started his career at PSG who inflicted the blow.
The 24-year-old Coman ghosted in at the far post unchecked by the PSG defense and was ready to meet a cross from Joshua Kimmich in the 59th minute.
It was Bayern's 43rd goal of a perfect European campaign that has seen Bayern become the first team to win all 11 Champions League matches.
"When you win a title like this with brothers on the pitch," Kimmich said, "that's the maximum you can ask for."
It capped an incredible transformation this season under Hansi Flick, who emerged from the shadows in November, with a promotion to the top coaching job with Bayern fourth in the Bundesliga.
The season is now over -- three months later than planned due to the coronavirus pandemic pause in play -- with Bayern treble winners just as it was in 2013.
The European Cup joins the Bundesliga trophy -- won for an eighth successive season and the German Cup.
Bayern joins deposed champion Liverpool as six-time champions of Europe, only behind AC Milan (seven) and Real Madrid (13). It was the first final to end 1-0 since Real Madrid beat Juventus in 1998 which was also the last final to feature teams who qualified as domestic champions.
But the singing PSG contingent around the directors' box was silenced in a stadium that was largely empty due to coronavirus restrictions.
And when the final whistle blew, Neymar was in tears, embraced by Bayern rival David Alaba.
"They were more clinical than us," PSG midfielder Ander Herrera said. "When you play another top team in Europe, if you don't score they will."
PSG's footballing superstars were subdued at a final which lacked the usual pre-match entertainment from pop stars.
Not that PSG lacked chances to take the lead at a final that should have been played in Istanbul in May, rather than the Portuguese capital in late August when seasons usually begin not end.
Only the presence of "Istanbul" on the match ball that Neymar struck at Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in the 18th was a reminder here of the pandemic-enforced change of location.
Neymar did spark the move that saw Herrera and Di Maria combine but the Argentine could only strike over. And an interchange between Herrera and Mbappe before halftime ended with a weak shot from the French forward.
Perhaps the only surprise was that there was no 56th goal of the season by Bayern forward Robert Lewandowski.
For once his scoring contribution was not needed as this season like no other ended with a 21st successive win for Bayern as part of a 30-game unbeaten run.
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Trump launches new effort to reopen Strait of Hormuz
Dubai (AP): US forces on Monday launched an effort to guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where hundreds have been stuck since the Iran war began.
Two American-flagged merchant ships have “successfully transited” through the critical waterway, the US military said. Separately, the US military denied Iran's claims that it struck an American Navy vessel southeast of the strait.
Iran handed over its latest proposal for negotiations with the US to mediators in Pakistan, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported Friday. Trump subsequently said he's “not satisfied” with it, but did not elaborate on the proposal's apparent shortcomings. The shaky ceasefire between the US and Iran has lasted for three weeks.
Here's the latest:
European leaders see Trump's troop drawdown from Germany as new proof they must go it alone
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European leaders on Monday said President Trump's snap decision to pull thousands of US troops out of Germany came as a surprise but is a fresh sign that Europe must take care of its own security.
The Pentagon announced last week that it would pull some 5,000 troops out of Germany, but Trump told reporters Saturday that “we're going to cut way down. And we're cutting a lot further than 5,000.”
He offered no reason for the move, which blindsided NATO, but his decision came amid an escalating dispute with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the US-Israeli war on Iran, and Trump's anger over European allies' reluctance to get involved in the conflict in the Middle East.
Wall Street hesitates and oil prices climb with uncertainty about the Strait of Hormuz
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The US stock market is holding tentatively near its record heights Monday, while oil prices climb with uncertainty about when oil tankers can resume crossing the Strait of Hormuz and restore the world's flow of crude. Dueling claims about a possible Iranian strike on a U.S. Navy vessel in the strait heightened the tensions.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.1 per cent, coming off its latest all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 216 points, or 0.4 per cent, as of 9:35 am Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.1 per cent.
The action was stronger in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of Brent crude climbed 2 per cent to USD 110.37 and briefly topped USD 114 during the morning. Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to its war with the United States has kept oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf and away from customers worldwide. That in turn has sent the price of Brent soaring from roughly USD 70 per barrel before the war.
Iran stands firm on its grip of the strait
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The disruption of the waterway has squeezed countries in Europe and Asia that depend on Persian Gulf oil and gas, raising prices far beyond the region.
Trump has promised to bring down gas prices as he faces midterm elections this year.
The US has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions for paying Iran for transit of the strait. It has enacted a naval blockade on Iranian ports since April 13, telling 49 commercial ships to turn back, U.S. Central Command said Sunday. The blockade has deprived Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy.
US officials have expressed hope the blockade forces Iran back to the negotiation table.
US claims progress in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, saying two merchant ships have transited
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The US military said Monday that two American-flagged merchant ships had successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz and Navy guided-missile destroyers in the Persian Gulf were helping to restore shipping traffic. It separately denied Iran's claims to have struck an American Navy vessel.
The announcement came a day after US President Donald Trump announced a new initiative to help guide ships through the critical waterway for global energy. Iran has effectively closed the strait since the US and Israel started the war Feb 28, rattling the global economy.
The US-led Joint Maritime Information Center has advised ships to cross the strait in Oman's waters, saying it set up an “enhanced security area.” U.S. Central Command didn't say when the Navy ships arrived or when the merchant vessels departed.
It was unclear whether shipping companies, and their insurers, will feel comfortable taking the risk given that Iran has fired on ships in the waterway and vowed to keep doing so.
