Four years ago, in 2020, Bayern Munich beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in the Champions League final. Tonight, they meet for the third time since. Those four years — an Olympic cycle, a World Cup cycle — is a period of time that lends itself to assessing how the two clubs, which share as many similarities as differences, have changed.

Real Madrid playing Liverpool in the Champions League has twice in recent years been a final between arguably the two best teams in the competition. Their next meeting, however, finds two storied powers in starkly different positions at the midway point of the 36-team single league standings format.

There's still time for the cream to rise, but a topsy-turvy first half leaves some of Europe's biggest names threatened