Favourites Paris Saint-Germain have their sights fixed on finally winning the Champions League trophy but a rugged and battle-hardened Inter Milan side stand in their way in Saturday’s final in Munich.
The climax to the European season has thrown up a mouthwatering clash of opposing styles and ideas of how to build a team. It is a contest between one of the continent’s old guard and one of the state-owned modern superclubs.
Despite enormous spending, PSG have never won the most glamorous prize in European club football and this is just their second final since the transformative Qatari takeover of the team from the French capital in 2011.
In 2020, during the pandemic, they lost the final to Bayern Munich behind closed doors in Lisbon, despite the presence of Kylian Mbappe and Neymar up front.
Adding an ageing and unmotivated Lionel Messi to that front line took them further away from European glory than at any point in the last decade and their thrilling run to Munich has come in the season after Mbappe followed the South American superstar duo out of the exit door.
Mbappe thought a move to last year’s Champions League winners Real Madrid would improve his chances of getting his hands on the trophy. Instead Luis Enrique’s thrilling young Paris side — average age under 24 — has taken Europe by storm.
When they last came to Munich in November and lost 1-0 to Bayern, they were in danger of being knocked out during the league phase in the first season since the competition’s new format was introduced.
A brilliant comeback win in January against 2023 champions Manchester City was the catalyst for a superb run as PSG eliminated three more Premier League sides — Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal — en route to the final.
Ousmane Dembele has been the standout with 33 goals in all competitions, ably assisted by fellow forwards Desire Doue, Bradley Barcola and January signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Others like Achraf Hakimi, formerly of Inter and perhaps the world’s best full-back, and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma have also been superb for the French league and cup double winners.
“We know what kind of football we want to play and now we just need to go out and do it to our full potential,” said their Spanish coach, who is looking to win his second Champions League title, a decade after leading Messi’s Barcelona to glory in Berlin.
“It is always very difficult to get to the final of the Champions League. All players and coaches dream of playing in it but most don’t get the chance.
“We want to be the first ones in Paris to win the Champions League and make history.”
That, remarkably, would make them just the second French club to win the competition — if they are looking for an omen then Marseille’s 1993 triumph also came in Munich, across the city at the old Olympic Stadium, and against Inter’s city rivals AC Milan.
Inter, meanwhile, are bidding to win a fourth European Cup to add to back-to-back triumphs under Helenio Herrera in the 1960s, and the 2010 victory against Bayern in Madrid, under Jose Mourinho.
Coach Simone Inzaghi was already in charge when the Nerazzurri got to the final two years ago and lost narrowly to City.
As many as eight of the team that started that night in Istanbul could do so again here, where Inter have also already played this season.
Inzaghi’s side beat Bayern in the quarter-finals before getting the better of Barcelona in the last four in one of the all-time great Champions League ties, especially the epic second leg in the rain at San Siro.
“To really make history we have to win on Saturday,” said Inzaghi, whose likely starting line-up will feature three players aged 36 or over.
Inter will set up in a 3-5-2 formation that contrasts sharply with the 4-3-3 of PSG, and it will be fascinating to see how they respond to losing out to Napoli for the Serie A title on the last day of the season.
“We know that it will be difficult, we know that we’re facing a super team just like Barcelona and Bayern Munich but they will come up against a team which has the same goal as PSG. All we can do is try put in a great performance in the final,” he added.
AFP
AFP
