Winners of the 2025–26 Champions League final on Saturday 30 May in Budapest, Paris Saint-Germain have further cemented their place in European football history by winning the competition for the second consecutive season
Despite Kai Havertz opening the scoring after just six minutes, the final didn’t really spark into life until the final 20 minutes when legs got heavy, changes were made and both teams took off the handbrake and the enormity of the occasion truly set in.
There were virtually no gaps between the Gunners’ lines and virtually no player in red out on that pitch ever missed a beat in the defensive third, until a foul by Cristhian Mosquera on Khvicha Kvaratskhelia led to a penalty that Ousmane Dembélé converted to tie the match.
Gunners’ defensive stalwart Gabriel missed the decisive pen as the French champions became the first club to win back-to-back European Cups since Real Madrid in 2018.
Despite the intensity of the final moments of normal time, Arsenal hung on – you don’t have to love the way the Gunners goes about their business, but it demands respect. The almost insatiable appetite it has to defend is truly admirable. It has taken them to the Premier League title and just yards away from a first Champions League, but it just wasn’t to be for Mikel Arteta’s side.
Extra time was mainly an exercise in killing time until penalties, when the Parisians took their chances – aside from one save from David Raya – and Arsenal defender Gabriel sailed a must-have spot kick over the bar to hand the title to PSG.
