THIERRY HENRY led the praise for Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich following their pulsating Champions League semi-final first leg.
The European heavyweights played out a game for the ages at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday night.
Defending champions PSG ran out 5-4 winners in what many have called “THE GAME OF THE CENTURY” thanks to braces from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembele and a header from Joao Neves.
The match had everything: controversy, moments of individual brilliance and, to the delight of fans, constant free-flowing and attractive football.
It provided the perfect antidote to some of the conservative football which has taken over the beautiful game over the last two years.
And it was a welcome watch for former Arsenal and Barcelona star turned CBS Sports pundit Henry.
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The Frenchman said: “Risks. We’ve been talking about how we watch a lot of teams that do not take any risks
“Wingers that don’t dribble, people that don’t go forward [and] they’re thinking about not losing the game instead of winning it.
“Well, tonight, we have plenty of risk situations at times.
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“Maybe if you think about [it and] if you have your defensive hat on, you’ll go crazy on some stuff that you might see or [what] you saw tonight. But I don’t care.
“You know what, we’ve been complaining for more than one year or one-and-a-half or two years that football is ‘boring’ in brackets and whatnot.
“That game wasn’t boring. And again, if you put your professional hat on, we’re gonna have to analyse some stuff about the goals that were conceded.
“But you know what? I enjoyed myself and I think everybody at home enjoyed themselves.
“It’s just crazy, as you said, that’s a score you see normally on aggregate at the end of a tie.
“You saw that, it was just crazy at times.”
Henry’s fellow CBS pundit Peter Schmeichel was similarly blown away by what he witnessed and coined the game the best he’d ever watched in person.
The Dane, who won the UCL trophy back with Manchester United in 1999, said: “The only mistake in the game was the referee giving that penalty right at halftime.
“That was the only blemish of this game. I cannot remember having watched a better game ever in my life, live being in the stadium.
“The tempo and how it shifted from end to end all the time; it was brilliant.”
Jamie Carragher, who won the competition in 2005 with Liverpool, said of the match: “Every attacking player on the pitch there was an eight or nine out of ten.
“And I think every attacking player got the better of his counterpart.”
He added: “The attacking play was out of this world.”
Wayne Rooney, who lifted Europe‘s elite club trophy with United back in 2008, was also dumbfounded by the 90-plus minutes of sensational football.
The Amazon Prime pundit said: “Both teams have got so much quality at the top end of the pitch that they probably forgot to defend a little bit.
“It was crazy, it was chaotic, and we saw some great goals.”
PSG and Bayern will renew their rivalry at the Allianz Arena next Wednesday.