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BERLIN (AP) — If Bayern Munich wanted to present a united front before it hosts Real Madrid for the first leg of their Champions League semifinal, it has failed.

Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel said on Saturday his honor as coach has been insulted by club powerbroker Uli Hoeness.

Hoeness, now Bayern’s honorary president after more than 40 years at the forefront of the club, suggested on Friday that Tuchel was not capable of helping young players develop.

“He doesn’t think he can improve a Davies, Pavlovic or Musiala. If it doesn’t work, you should buy someone else,” Hoeness said during a panel discussion hosted by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. “I think you should work hard on them and give them confidence.”

Hoeness said he expects a coach to “improve young players.”

Alphonso Davies, Aleksandar Pavlovic and Jamal Musiala are all young players who have featured prominently for Bayern this season. The 19-year-old Pavlovic made his debut under Tuchel in an 8-0 rout of Darmstadt last October and has since been called up by Germany.

Davies and Pavlovic entered as substitutes in Bayern’s win over Frankfurt on Saturday and are likely to play against Madrid on Tuesday, while Musiala is battling to be fit for the match.

Tuchel said Hoeness’ comments “are so far removed from reality that there’s no … I don’t know how I should answer. On the one hand it insults my honor as a coach, because I think we’ve shown as a coaching team for the last 15 years that young players, especially from the academy, always, always, always have a place with us in training and that they have a place on the field with their performances.”

Tuchel is set to leave Bayern at the end of the season after both club and coach agreed in February to end their collaboration after a run of three games without a win. Bayer Leverkusen subsequently won the Bundesliga, ending Bayern’s 11-year reign as champion, but Tuchel could yet lead the club to Champions League glory.

Many Bayern fans have signed a petition calling on the club to keep Tuchel in charge instead of hiring Ralf Rangnick, the favorite to take over after rejections from Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso, Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann and Aston Villa’s Unai Emery.

But there’s little chance of Tuchel staying, even if the club powerbrokers changed their minds.

Tuchel told Sky TV he had “very little understanding” for Hoeness’ “absolutely baseless” comments.

“It’s so far removed from reality that I wouldn’t have reacted to it at all if it hadn’t come from Uli Hoeness. If it hadn’t come from Uli, then I would have said, ‘Guys, it’s not even worth talking about,'” Tuchel said. “Because it’s from Uli, because it’s from our boss, because it’s four days before the game against Real Madrid, it’s judged a bit differently.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

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Kylian Mbappe struck twice as Paris Saint-Germain battled back to beat 10-man Barcelona 4-1 and book a place in the Champions League semi-finals with a 6-4 aggregate triumph on Tuesday.

Raphinha fired Barcelona ahead early on but Ronald Araujo’s 29th-minute red card turned the tide in PSG’s favour, despite the Spanish champions leading by two goals following a 3-2 quarter-final first-leg win.

Ousmane Dembele and Vitinha levelled the tie for PSG and the deadly Mbappe hit a brace to put them into the final four for the first time since 2021.

The French champions have never won the trophy despite huge investment but demonstrated they have the attacking weapons in their squad to do so.

PSG coach Luis Enrique, who led Barca to the 2015 Champions League, said he believed his team would turn things around despite never having managed to after a first-leg home defeat, and so it proved.

“It looked bad but the team concentrated — whatever happened, we had to beat Barcelona,” said Dembele, whistled heavily by fans of his former club.

Five-time winners Barcelona were dreaming of a first semi-final return since 2019 but Araujo’s red card for pulling down the relentless Bradley Barcola undermined their grip on the tie.

It became another in a series of European nightmares for the Catalans, who last won the trophy in 2015.

“In Europe playing with 10 you know you are going to suffer,” Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong told Movistar.

“We tried and we fought to be in the semi-finals, it’s a tough blow because we were convinced we could get through.”

The visitors started with determination and penned Barcelona back in their own territory, but it was the hosts who took the lead.

Explosive 16-year-old starlet Lamine Yamal ripped past Nuno Mendes and crossed to the near post where Raphinha turned home his third goal in the tie.

The other PSG forwards found the net but it was Barcola who tilted the match in PSG’s favour.

The winger teed up Mbappe but Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen denied him well, before Araujo was sent off for bringing him down.

The Uruguayan centre-back pulled Barcola back as he burst into the area, leaving Barca with 10 men.

Dembele struck after 40 minutes from another Barcola cross, which raked across the area to the back post where he was arriving to fire into the roof of the net.

Barcelona sacrificed Yamal for defender Inigo Martinez after Araujo’s red card and it left them with few outlets in attack.

No escape

With PSG controlling the game Barcelona soon paid the price for their inability to keep possession.

Vitinha was given far too much space on the edge of the box and he drilled into the bottom corner to put PSG ahead on the night.

Ilkay Gundogan hit the post at the other end for Barcelona before their coach Xavi was sent off for a show of dissent on the touchline.

The Catalans were losing their heads and Joao Cancelo clumsily fouled Dembele to hand PSG a penalty.

Mbappe, who had been kept quiet in the first leg, hammered it into the top corner for his 40th goal across all competitions.

The striker’s future may lie in Spain, with Real Madrid aiming to sign him in the summer at the end of his contract, and he made no friends in Barcelona by hopping the advertising hoardings and running towards fans to celebrate.

Another member of Barcelona’s backroom staff was dismissed after Gundogan had a penalty appeal waved away and it became clear the hosts had no response.

Mbappe wrapped up the win in the 89th minute after a fine Ter Stegen double save, leaving Barcelona the victims of another bitterly disappointing night in Europe.

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Italy’s Serie A will get an extra place in next season’s revamped Champions League.

With next season’s tournament featuring an expanded field of 36 teams, the two leagues with the best overall performance across all European competitions this campaign will be rewarded with an additional berth each.

Serie A has built an insurmountable coefficient advantage over the other leagues in contention, as detailed by Dale Johnson of ESPN, thus sealing one of the extra places.

Despite Serie A losing all of its Champions League participants earlier in the tournament, both Roma and Atalanta reached the semifinals of the Europa League on Thursday, while Fiorentina are back in the semis of the Conference League.

Instead of the usual four, the top five teams in Serie A this season will automatically qualify for the 2024-25 Champions League.

Germany’s Bundesliga and England’s Premier League are battling for the final extra berth. France still has an outside chance, too. The Bundesliga is in a very strong position after Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund reached the Champions League semifinals, while the Premier League lost Arsenal and Manchester City. Liverpool’s surprising Europa League exit at the hands of Atalanta was also a big blow to the Premier League’s chances.

Serie A has a coefficient of 19.428 points, ahead of Germany (17.928) and England (17.375). Germany needs just 0.488 more coefficient points – equivalent to two victories, or a win and two draws – to nab the other berth, according to Johnson.

Coefficient averages are found by adding the total points accumulated by all of a country’s European participants and dividing by the number of clubs competing. Teams collect two points for each match won and one for a draw. Countries earn bonus points by having representatives in the group and knockout stages.

The Premier League, which had eight teams in European competitions to begin the year, was a favorite to nab one of the extra Champions League places prior to this week’s action.

In addition to losing Manchester City and Arsenal, West Ham United were knocked out of the Europa League by newly-crowned Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen in another direct battle between Germany and England.

Had this system been in place in any of the past three seasons, England would have secured one of the extra spots based on the performances of its teams in Europe. Italy has been the standout performer this year, though.

Access to 2024-25 European competitions in Serie A now breaks down as follows: League positions one through five qualify for the Champions League, sixth place and the domestic cup winners go to the Europa League, and seventh place heads to the Conference League.

Italy could have six teams in the Champions League if Roma or Atalanta win the Europa League and finish outside the automatic qualifying spots in Serie A. Roma is currently fifth in the table, four points ahead of Atalanta in sixth, and stand to benefit most if the table remains the same through the end of the domestic season.

Meanwhile, the race to finish fourth in the Premier League could heat up in the coming weeks with fifth place now unlikely to yield a Champions League berth. Aston Villa currently occupy the final Champions League spot but are likely to face a stiff challenge from Tottenham Hotspur, who sit three points back with a game in hand.