Confident Mbappe and PSG will put Bayern Munich strength in depth to test

A penny for the thoughts of Sadio Mane, as he rested up on Sunday and watched on television his old club Liverpool host Manchester United.

There’d be a loyal smile, certainly, as he surveyed a 7-0 hammering to trump even the last, emphatic Liverpool-United clashes – last season’s 5-0 and 4-0 – he was involved in.

There would be a poignant reflection about the two goals each for Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez, players who have replaced Mane in the Liverpool forward line, and about the goals from his old allies, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.

Mane joined Bayern Munich last summer, a time he felt appropriate to close his hugely successful seven years at Anfield, and, at 30, left him young and close enough to his peak to take on a new, elite challenge. So far, it has not been entirely kind.

Mane, bought by Bayern partly to fill the large gap left by Barcelona-bound Robert Lewandowksi, has missed almost two months of the campaign with a shinbone injury that also ruled him out of Senegal’s World Cup.

The comeback is now under way, but not yet so convincingly he is guaranteed a starting place in Wednesday's stellar, high-stakes Champions League meeting with Paris Saint-Germain.

Bayern have so far in the tie shown they can manage the French champions without Mane, having gained a 1-0 lead in the French capital last month.

They held that advantage through the 33 second half minutes when Kylian Mbappe, not fit enough to start, came off the bench and they hung on to it in the tense closing seconds when Bayern were reduced to 10 men with the dismissal of Benjamin Pavard.

But a single goal lead looks that bit more precarious with Mbappe fit from the kick-off, and eager to run at a Bayern rearguard shorn of three World Cup-winners,