We have a new champion in town: the French club Paris Saint-Germain have become the 24th team to win the UEFA Champions League or its predecessor European Cup. Coached by the Spaniard Luis Enrique, they beat the Italian side Internazionale from Milan, Italy 5–0, the largest defeat in UCL final history.
Previously, Enrique also won the Champions League with FC Barcelona, back in 2015.
PSG arrived to the UCL final in Munich, Germany as French champions and cup winners. On the other hand, Inter fell short in both domestic competitions, having finished second in the Serie A behind Napoli and having been eliminated by local rivals AC Milan in the semi-final of the Italian Cup. Accordingly, Paris Saint-Germain was considered the favourites before the game.
And those predictions started to come true very quickly.
By the end of the 20th minute, the French side was up 2–0. Achraf Hakimi, who transferred from Inter to PSG in 2021, opened the scoring against his former club. He just had to tap the ball into an open goal after a quick play inside the Inter box found him wide open at the far post. Out of sportsmanship, he did not celebrate his goal against his former club.
19-year-old Désiré Doué provided him with the assist. Soon, the teenager himself found the net, making it 2–0 in the 20th minute. In the second half, in the 64th minute, he doubled his tally, and expanded the deficit to three goals. It was clear that there was no coming back from there for Inter. PSG has been the more active side all throughout the game.
Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who came to PSG from Inter’s domestic rivals Napoli in January of this year, scored the fourth in the 73rd minute; while another French teen, Senny Mayulu, set the final 5–0 scoreline in the 87th minute. This was a great triumph for Enrique’s PSG, completing their first treble; and evidently a devastating defeat for Inter.
‘We have made history, but we do not want to stop here. Every day, I want to become a little better coach. That’s been our goal since last season. Now it’s time to have a big party and enjoy the moment. This is a wonderful moment at the end of an exceptional season, but we all deserved it. I think we managed the excitement and the tension as well as we could,’ PSG head coach Enrique has stated after his great victory.
Many fans have pointed out that, peculiarly, Paris Saint-Germain, which has been heavily funded by the state-owned Qatar Sports Investments since 2011, finally got their hands on their coveted Champions League title after all of their superstars, Neymar, Lionel Messi, and Kylian Mbappé, have left. Mbappé was the last one of them to leave last year, with the specific intention to win the UCL with his new club Real Madrid, who were the reigning champions in the competition at the time—this move, however, very much backfired for him.
Transylvanian Hungarian referee István Kovács officiated the game. As is usual with games where one team very decisively beats the other, the refereeing did not get much attention and there were no controversial calls to talk about post-game. Next year, the UEFA Champions League final will be played at the Puskás Arena in Budapest, Hungary.
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