Thunder struck at the French goal for 6 minutes when Kai Havertz, who had escaped the PSG goalkeeper on the left flank, sent the ball under the crossbar with a powerful shot from a sharp angle.
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For a very long time, this was the only shot made by the London team in the first half. The second was only made during the referee’s added time, when K. Havertz was again in a dangerous position.
PSG controlled the ball for 77% of the time before the break but managed only 6 shots and hit the target only once.
After the break, the pattern of play did not change, and the Parisians equalized when, in the 62nd minute, they managed to deliver the ball to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who had cut into the penalty area. The Georgian was stopped by a foul, and Ousmane Dembele soon converted the penalty into a goal.
After this episode, the game became much more open, but the French again created a good chance to score. In the 77th minute, Ch. Kvaratskhelia was once again at the spearhead of the attack, but after his shot, the defender managed to touch the ball and deflect it onto the post.
In the 89th minute, Vitinha could have snatched victory for PSG, but the Portuguese’s shot from 16 meters lacked a bit of accuracy, and the teams had to go into extra time.
Over the two halves, PSG controlled the ball 75% of the time, made 18 shots (3 on target), and earned 10 corners. Meanwhile, Arsenal made only 4 shots (1 on target) and did not earn a single corner.
At the end of the first half of extra time, tensions flared when Noni Madueke burst into the Paris penalty area. Arsenal representatives demanded a penalty, but neither the match referee Daniel Siebert nor VAR saw it. Eventually, for their emotions, London club strategist Mikel Arteta and midfielder Declan Rice were punished with yellow cards.
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During the additional half-hour of play, the teams did not score, so the fate of the Champions League trophy was decided in a penalty shootout, where all eyes turned to the goalkeepers Matvey Safonov (PSG) and David Raya (Arsenal).
The football lottery went better for PSG. The French scored the first two shots, but the Englishman Eberechi Eze missed the goal with the second shot.
However, in the third round of shots, the score became equal. D. Raya saved Nuno Mendes’ attempt, and D. Rice was accurate (2:2).
Later, Achraf Hakimi and Gabriel Martinelli exchanged accurate shots, Lucas Beraldo, who took the fifth PSG attempt, also scored, but Gabriel sent the ball over the French crossbar with the decisive shot.
- PSG 4:0 Atalanta;
- Barcelona 1:2 PSG
- Bayer 2:7 PSG
- PSG 1:2 Bayern
- PSG 5:3 Tottenham
- Athletic 0:0 PSG
- Sporting 2:1 PSG
- PSG 1:1 Newcastle
- First knockout round: PSG 5:4 (3:2 and 2:2) Monaco
- Round of 16: PSG 8:2 (5:2 and 3:0) Chelsea
- Quarterfinal: PSG 4:0 (2:0 and 2:0) Liverpool
- Semifinal: PSG 6:5 (5:4 and 1:1) Bayern
With this victory, the Parisians joined a very rare company. Since the strongest continental tournament became the Champions League in 1992, only Real Madrid has managed to win it at least twice in a row (the “kings” did it three times – 2016, 2017, and 2018).
Since 1955, when the then European Cup (the predecessor of the Champions League) was founded, seven other clubs have managed to repeat the triumph in the final, but all of them – more than 36 years ago: Lisbon’s Benfica (1961 and 1962), Milan’s Inter (1964 and 1965), Amsterdam’s Ajax (1971, 1972, and 1973), Munich’s Bayern (1974, 1975, and 1976), Liverpool (1977 and 1978), Nottingham Forest (1979 and 1980), and Milan (1989 and 1990).
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