How PSG bested Arsenal to win UEFA Champions League

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Paris Saint-Germain sealed back-to-back Champions League glory in a penalty shootout win against Arsenal after Eberechi Eze and Gabriel Magalhães both missed the target following a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes at the Puskas Arena.

After defeating Internazionale 5-0 in Munich last year to win their first Champions League title, PSG became only the second team (after Real Madrid) since the competition was restructured in 1992 to defend their crown.

Arsenal had taken the lead in the sixth minute with a Kai Havertz goal, but PSG equalized via a second-half Ousmane Dembélé penalty. The Ligue 1 champions dominated the game but were unable to finish off Mikel Arteta’s side until the penalty shootout.

Eze sent his penalty wide before David Raya saved from Nuno Mendes, but Gabriel’s effort flew over the crossbar to hand PSG a 4-3 shootout win, securing coach Luis Enrique’s third Champions League title as a coach. — Mark Ogden

This was the right outcome…

We can go and parse it down to incidents: Nuno Mendes colliding with Noni Madueke, Bukayo Saka being beaten by millimeters to the ball by Matvey Safonov, the drama of the spot kicks when anything can happen and sometimes does. Each of those could have gone Arsenal’s way — none of them did, and in a low-scoring sport, that can make all the difference.

But the eye test and the numbers tell a different story. It’s football and Paris Saint Germain played football, as in “played with the ball and did things with it,” which is kinda the essence of the sport. No four-year-old in the back garden leaves it lying on the ground and practices his defensive movements.