Paris Saint-Germain 5-0 Inter Milan
Ultimately, it was over almost as soon as it began.
A meeting between Europe’s finest turned out to be so one-sided, the Champions League Final was a rout.
Like so many, SBOTOP had predicted a night of Champions League 2025 highlights in Munich.
As it turned out, they all belonged to one club.
For the first time ever, Paris St Germain are champions of Europe and my how they deserve it.
Highlights of the game
Before kick-off, the Champions League 2025 betting odds seemed too close to call.
France against Italy in the final, that rarely happens. Serie A, once the best league in the world, had not won the title for 15 years and Ligue 1 last had a winner in 1993 – in the inaugural season of the Champions League when Marseille defeated Milan.
Since then, there had only been two finals with a French club, Monaco losing in 2004 and PSG in 2020.
Here in Munich, Inter were hoping to recreate the glory they experienced early last month – when an impressive 2-1 victory ultimately sent Bayern Munich packing in the quarter-finals.
An epic semi-final success against Barcelona, one that will be remembered for generations, duly followed, to give Simone Inzaghi and his side a shot at Euro glory.
Yet this wasn’t to be.
From the outset, PSG dominated to avenge their 2020 heartbreak and finally land the trophy they have so desired since 2011 when, backed by the Qatari government, QSI acquired a majority stake and then became the Parisian outfit’s sole owner 12 months later.
Ever since, PSG have been a state-owned club and one of the wealthiest teams in the world.
Oh the irony they have fulfilled their dream without their ‘galacticos’ – the likes of Neymar and Lionel Messi who were brought into achieve just that.
While the postmortems will follow in Inter, who simply never turned up, we should focus on PSG who very much did.
The facts will show you that Achraf Hakimi opened the scoring against his former club after 12 minutes and Desire Doue doubled the lead eight minutes later.
If it wasn’t quite over at that stage, it was when the same player added a sensational third just after the hour.
Inspired January signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia grabbed the fourth before 18-year-old Senny Mayulu added the fifth, moments after coming on and literally didn’t know how to celebrate.
As he became only the third teenager to score in a Champions League Final, this was a triumph for top talents, not big superstars like before, but a team unit with an excellent mentality and top coach in Luis Enrique.
They played with a freedom, a verve, a belief and a work rate which Inter simply could not match.
Perhaps this was written in the stars. After all, this was the fifth time a European Cup/Champions League final had been held in Munich and the victors in each of the previous four were winning the trophy for the very first time.
As firework celebrations began at the Parc des Princes within seconds of the final whistle, all those associated with the Nerazzurri looked bereft.
Of all the nights to freeze on the big stage, this was the worst possible moment,
A historic night for Paris St-Germain. Champions of Europe for the first time.
As their players and staff celebrated, their fans unveiled a huge tifo inside the Allianz Arena featuring Enrique’s daughter Xana, who passed away at the age of nine, in 2019.
The conclusion of the 2024-25 season had left it most heartwarming moment to the last. Au revoir and merci.
Key statistics
PSG are the first side to win an European Cup/Champions League final by a five goalmargin.
Doue is the first player to be involved in three goals in the Champions League final. Aged 19 years and 362 days, he’s also only the third teenager to score in the competition showpiece after Patrick Kluivert for Ajax in 1995 and Carlos Alberto for Porto in 2004.
Kvaratskhelia started the season with Napoli. He has ended it with a Serie A title medal, a Ligue 1 title medal and a Champions League winners’ medal.
Until tonight, PSG had played the fourth-most games (167) without ever winning the European Cup/Champions League, behind Arsenal (211), Dynamo Kyiv (185) and Atlético Madrid (176).
What’s next?
The newly fangled FIFA Club World Cup means PSG will be back in action on June 15 against Atletico Madrid and Inter take on Monterrey of Mexico three days later.
That competition, however, is an invitation tournament and pales into insignificance compared to this, especially at a time when leading players should be having a break.
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