Category: UEFA Competitions

The teams for the final in Budapest are set. We look at how they got there and the factors that could determine the champion

Destination Budapest, where Paris Saint-Germain will attempt to be the first club apart from Real Madrid to win two consecutive European Cups since Milan in 1990. Vincent Kompany’s promise of “more” from Bayern Munich after a nine-goal first leg did not materialise. PSG offered a different proposition in Wednesday’s second leg; they put on a performance of defensive discipline, with their attacking players committed to closing down their opponents. Luis Enrique’s team never allowed the tie to spin from their control even if there were 33 shots in Munich compared to 22 in Paris.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia plays like an old-style winger, and set up Ousmane Dembélé’s goal, but he is also thoroughly modern in the way he presses hard and high. Bayern found space at a premium until Harry Kane’s late goal. Luis Enrique’s team is much the same as last season’s, sticking to the same formula. They are a year older but still flush with youth. The PSG project took many years and billions of euros to hit pay dirt but is now delivering the success that was dreamed of after the Qatari takeover in 2011.

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Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s trickery and imagination gave Konrad Laimer a torrid time in Munich. Arsenal, beware

Well, it was never going to be quite the same. You only get one all-time high, one first kiss, one Catcher in the Rye, one loved-up alien-ball dreamscape of a game like the first leg between these two teams.

In the event Bayern Munich never really laid a glove on Paris Saint-Germain at the Allianz Arena. They trailed from the third minute to Ousmane Dembélé’s goal, drew level on the night through Harry Kane at the death, but looked in between like a team trying to generate energy from a standing start, always kept at one remove by the extended arm, the palm on their forehead, fists whirling in the empty air between.

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Ousmane Dembele’s early goal sent PSG through to meet Arsenal despite a late cracker from Harry Kane

“I’m a little bored with the hyperbole over the first leg,” writes Jose Mou- Tim Smith. “It’s like regular football folk have lost the run of themselves. So, I predict a dull, cagey, 0-1 with a late goal. Of course, I’ll probably be proven wrong within five minutes of kick off.”

“Evening Rob,” begins Andy Gordon. “As Scott’s MBM last week gave us nine goals and all-time classic, if tonight doesn’t meet expectations do we email you with complaints/refund requests?”

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In the space of a week the mood has changed, with positive energy replacing suffering, and two trophies are suddenly within reach

It was a soundbite designed to go viral, the kind the ex-pros in the TV studios are always looking to confect; snappy, heavy on hyperbole, bang in the moment. Thierry Henry made it pop on Tuesday night as he interviewed Bukayo Saka on CBS Sports after Arsenal had beaten Atlético Madrid to advance to the Champions League final. “We were the Invincibles. You will be the Unforgettables,” Henry said.

There it was, as laid out by one of the greats, the goalscoring hero of Arsenal’s unbeaten bolt to the 2004 Premier League title, the last one they won.

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• Winger insists side can overcome PSG or Bayern

• Ødegaard takes ‘massive confidence’ from semi-final

Arsenal will travel to Budapest for the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich with no trace of an inferiority complex, according to Leandro Trossard, who knows that anything is possible in a one-off game.

The Arsenal winger and his teammates drank in the euphoria after Tuesday night’s 1-0 home win over Atlético Madrid in the semi-final second-leg for a 2-1 aggregate triumph, savouring the achievement and the sense of history. Arsenal have only contested one previous final in the competition, losing to Barcelona in 2006.

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Arsenal are in the Budapest final thanks to Bukayo Saka’s first-half goal

Pennant Watch. There’s nothing wrong, in and of itself, with the commemorative gift stand-in captain Bukayo Saka will hand over to his opposite number Koke. But that badge. Come on, man. Stand it next to the time-honoured Victoria Concodria Crescit crest and weep. And that’s before we get to the stratospherically sexy Art Deco A-football-C logo. Ever since that fateful rebrand, Herbert Chapman has been spinning elegantly in his grave, nearly a quarter of a style-free century on.

Atletico Madrid’s offering, however, is a thing of timeless beauty. Enrique Collar would have been proud to hand that over. Arsenal are favourites to go through tonight, but they’ve lost this very important pre-match skirmish.

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A first Champions League final in 20 years is within touching distance, but a difficult tie is not over yet

Mikel Arteta can be forgiven for never missing the chance to remind everyone that these are unprecedented times for Arsenal. As his side prepares to face Atlético Madrid in the decisive act of their second successive Champions League semi-final, it is easy to forget that they have only reached this stage on four occasions in their entire history.

But 20 years after Arsène Wenger’s team edged past Villarreal in the last European match to be played at Highbury, Arsenal have their best opportunity since then to reach a second final after a campaign where they have swept all before them. The 1-1 draw in last week’s first leg in Madrid made it 13 matches unbeaten in this year’s Champions League – the only club to have achieved that feat – and also matched Wenger’s longest run without a defeat in Europe’s premier competition.

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• Champions League semi-final delicately poised at 1-1

• ‘We are so hungry to get the game we want tomorrow’

Mikel Arteta promised that Arsenal’s players will turn into “beasts” as they attempt to reach the Champions League final for the first time since 2006.

Arsenal drew 1-1 in the first leg of their semi-final against Atlético Madrid last week and will be confident of overcoming Diego Simeone’s side after winning five of their six matches in this competition at the Emirates Stadium so far this season, conceding only three goals. Viktor Gyökeres scored twice in a 4-0 win over Atlético during the group stage, although Arsenal will be wary of underestimating the team that knocked out Barcelona in the quarter-finals.

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The first leg of the semi-finals produced a nine-goal thriller and a tense evening in Madrid. Next week’s matches are set to be a treat

Football’s role as a leading hot-take commodity was taken to the nth degree after Tuesday’s nine-goal slugfest between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris. Best game ever? What happened to the lost art of defending? Proof that France and Germany’s dominant clubs enjoy the luxury of not being challenged in their domestic leagues so they can keep their powder dry for the latter stages of the Champions League? Proof that the best attackers in Europe are sequestered at PSG and Bayern Munich? All of the above may well be true.

The debate will continue until next Wednesday’s second leg in Munich. Those who said it was the competition’s best ever semi-final – it had the most goals of any 90-minute match in the Champions League last-four – forgot previous contenders. “The best match I have ever coached,” said Luis Enrique. The PSG coach omitted to mention La Remontada of 2017, when his Barcelona team won 6-1 at the Camp Nou to complete the greatest comeback of all. And how about last season’s 7-6 semi-final double-header when Inter edged Barça? Only when the second leg delivers the same excitement can accusations of recency bias be dismissed.

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Viktor Gyokeres and Julian Alvarez scored from the spot before Arsenal were controversially denied another penalty

An entirely straightforward question for Arsenal fans

Premier League or Champions League? And why?

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