French football powerhouse, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), denied Premier League champions Arsenal a first Champions League triumph in a penalty shootout to win the competition for a second successive year.
PSG, coached by Spaniard Luis Enrique, denied Mikel Arteta’s side a league and European double in the final of the tournament held in the Puskas Arena in the Hungarian capital of Budapest on Saturday night.
The Gunners, who lifted the Premier League title for the first time in 22 years last weekend, made a dream start to the final when Kai Havertz, who scored the winning goal in the Champions League final for Chelsea against Manchester City in 2021, burst away from the PSG backline and rifled the ball into the roof of the net after only six minutes.
However, the Arsenal team looked set to sit back and prevent the French champions from putting the ball in the back of the net for the majority of the game.
This worked until a clumsy Mosquera tackle on PSG’s pacy winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia led to a penalty which Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele slotted home in the 65th minute to level the game.
Arsenal were forced to defend inside their own half for most of the game as PSG enjoyed 75 per cent of possession and the French side almost won it in normal time with Kvaratskhelia hitting … and Vitinha going close from the edge of the area.
Arsenal’s possession average (24.7 per cent) was the lowest by a team in a Champions League final (since Opta first recorded the stat in 2003-04), as well as their lowest in any match under Arteta, where they had 11 men on the pitch throughout.
After 90 minutes of play, the game went into extra time, in which Arsenal clamoured for a penalty shout when substitute Noni Madueke tangled with Nuno Mendes, but referee Daniel Siebert waved away protests that led to both Declan Rice and the Arsenal manager being booked.
After an extremely tense extra time, it was down to penalties. Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze was the first to miss, but parity was restored after David Raya saved from Nuno Mendes, but it was not enough. It was centre-back Gabriel who missed the decisive penalty as PSG won the shootout 4-3 to retain the Champions League title.
