For the first time in club history, Paris Saint-Germain lifted the UEFA Champions League title, and in some fashion to say the least.
A youthful PSG squad routed an experienced Inter Milan side 5-0 in Munich on Saturday to claim the only trophy that previously alluded them. 19-year-old Desire Doue stole the show with two goals and one assist, while three additional players got on the scoresheet for Luis Enrique’s squad.
Veteran wingback Achraf Hakimi propelled the Ligue 1 champions in front after 12 minutes, setting the stage for a busy night. Doue received a pass inside the 18-yard box before crossing to a wide-open Hakimi for an easy tap-in.
Doue extended PSG’s lead to 2-0 in the 20th minute, rifling a deflected shot into the back of the net for his first goal of the night.
PSG would continue to pile it on after the hour mark as Doue added his second goal on a counter attack. His right-footed shot snuck in near post to make it 3-0 PSG.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia slotted home Ousmane Dembele’s upfield pass to make it 4-0 with 17 minutes to play before 19-year-old Senny Mayulu capped the final score at 5-0 to give PSG a victory they won’t soon forget.
The result not only caps off a quadruple for PSG, but also seals their berth into the UEFA Super Cup this August against Europa League winners Tottenham.
As for Inter Milan, Saturday’s loss caps off a disappointing end of the season, which saw Simone Inzaghi’s men fall short of winning Serie A and also the Coppa Italia.
Yawn. A competition with the scales tilted so less than 10 teams have a chance of winning: PSG, Bayern, 3 teams from Spain, and the top 4 in England. With all of that Qatar oil money, eventually PSG was going to win. I didn’t even bother to watch.
I agree with all of this DC Josh tho I did watch, pulling for Inter to shock it all
To be fair those teams tried to make their own league and everyone threw a fit.
The CL is heading in the direction of the D1 in NCAA. The teams bankrolled with Middle East billions, or possibly those owned by private equity, have the funding to tilt the scales heavily in their favor. In the NCAA, the D1 schools willing to use the transfer portal to buy the talent needed in order to pursue a championship have a legitimate chance. The situation here and in Europe is leading to a loss of interest with fans.
PSG has had Qatari money for 14 yrs and just now won a title. Look at their roster, it’s not exactly a who’s who of global stars. Just a lot of promising young players and a few vets like Dembele and Donnarumma that once were starlets but were looked on as not really meeting their potential. If you look at top spending clubs 2,3, and 6 are publicly held Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern. Then you get the American sports conglomerates at 5,7, and 9 (Fenway, Kroenke, Glazers) Not counting Villa’s 46% American ownership by the owner of the Bucks. You still have family own Juve at 13. This disparity has been in top league soccer for at least 20-25 years. Maybe we notice it more now because the distribution of wealth grows farther and farther apart or because the new money is coming from people with darker skin, but the disparity has been there for some time. I mean last team that is out of the current top 20 in spending to win CL is Porto in ‘06 (needed a 90th min goal to beat ManU in the quarters). Then you’d have Ajax in ‘95 and Marseille in ‘93. So in 33 years of CL you have 3 teams outside the top 20 spenders currently who have won. Even in the old Euro Cup (‘56-‘92) days you had Real Madrid with 6 titles, AC Milan 4, Liverpool 4, Bayern 3 (almost half by those four powers).
PSG press set the tone, early and often. It was a great matchup for Enrique’s squad.
they matched up M2M in their zones in the midfield vs. the Inter buildout, and Inter did not have the players in midfield to beat that first defender consistently, one of the keys to beating that kind of pressure, and so early the long ball was the choice which exposed a lack of hold up play for Inter, which is another key vs. d pressure like that. One touch passing and moving wasn’t even on the table until 0-2 and after PSG backed off just a little around 35′, can’t remember exactly. Inter looked uninterested to intimidated on playing in the middle channel, and they got funneled and rushed and outnumbered on the holdup, etc
For Enrique, the choice to go super hard like that early all out and spend the energy in a final (I know they’ve played like this before) and go for it paid off and snowballed as Inter imploded. His tactics defensively to challenge Inzaghi’s team like this right from the opening whistle, the belief the PSG players displayed in their execution of the gameplan, champions.
they really jumped’em