Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain is a classic tale of an upstart team looking to unseat the reigning title holders.
PSG has gone from strength to strength since winning its first Champions League crown a year ago, while everything came together for Arsenal this year en route to finishing atop the English Premier League table for the first time in over two decades.
Here’s what you need to know about the Champions League final at Puskás Aréna in Budapest:
The format
Saturday’s game is a straight knockout final. If the score is tied after 90 minutes of regulation, it will go to extra time and penalty kicks (if necessary) to determine the winner.
Setting the stage
Arsenal finally shed its label of perennial bridesmaid when the London-based club beat out Manchester City by seven points to win its first Premier League title since 2004. Now, it has its sights set on a historic double by winning its first Champions League crown.
Paris Saint-Germain is eyeing a double of its own after winning its fifth consecutive Ligue 1 championship and eighth in nine years. PSG has been collecting trophies at a steady rate, having also won the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Intercontinental Cup since last year’s Champions League victory.
Champions League history
Saturday marks the eighth all-time meeting between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain in European club competition.
The Gunners earned a 2-1 aggregate win over the Parisians in the semifinals of the 1993-94 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
Since then, the French side has lost just once in five Champions League meetings against the English club while recording victories in each of its previous three encounters. Two of those wins came in last season’s semifinals.
It is also the first time that English and French teams have met in the final of the European Cup and Champions League.
PSG will be making its third appearance in the Champions League final, having lost to Bayern Munich in 2020 before dominating Inter Milan last year. Arsenal’s only previous appearance in a Champions League final was in 2006 when it lost to FC Barcelona.
How they arrived at the final
Arsenal cruised through the opening phase of the tournament with a perfect 8-0-0 record — the only team to win every game — while outscoring the opposition by a combined 23-4. The Gunners remained unbeaten through the knockout stage of the continental competition with three wins and three draws, besting Bundesliga outfit Bayer Leverkusen in the Round of 16, Portugal’s Sporting CP in the quarterfinals and Atlético Madrid in the semifinals while recording an impressive four clean sheets along the way.
Paris Saint-Germain found things a bit more difficult in the opening phase, as it was forced to win a two-game playoff against French rivals AS Monaco to advance to the knockout round. Premier League opponents Chelsea and Liverpool were easily dispatched by PSG in the Round of 16 and quarterfinals before PSG required a Herculean effort to earn a 6-4 aggregate win over Canadian international Alphonso Davies and Bayern Munich in the semifinals.
The main storylines
Paris Saint-Germain dominated the French first division since its Qatari ownership group took control of the club in 2011 and invested huge sums of money into the roster by signing Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a host of other top super stars. But Champions League success eluded the club until last year’s 5-1 trashing of Inter Milan in the final, when it became only the second French club to hoist the trophy. Now, it's looking to win two in a row to become the first team to win consecutive titles since Real Madrid won three on the bounce from 2016 to 2018.
Arsenal finds itself back in the Champions League final for the first time in two decades, its only other appearance coming in a losing effort in 2006 ahead of that summer’s FIFA World Cup. The Gunners appear to be a team of destiny after edging out Manchester City for the Premier League crown and booking its spot in the final with a near flawless run. A victory by Arsenal in Budapest would not only cap off a sensational campaign, but also mark the beginning of a new era where it would rightfully take its place amongst the top clubs in the world.
The key battle: Arsenal’s centre backs vs. PSG’s attackers
French international William Saliba and Brazilian Gabriel Magalhães form one of the best — if not the best — centre-back pairings in world soccer. They’ve been at the heart of Arsenal’s miserly defence all season, both in the Premier League and Champions League.
According to OPTA, a leading British sports analytics company, Arsenal has lost just 15 of the 117 games in which Saliba and Magalhães have played together. The Gunners conceded just 20 goals in 2,751 minutes during the Premier League season when Magalhães was on the pitch, an average of one goal every 138 minutes. Saliba wasn’t far behind — Arsenal conceded a goal every 131 minutes when he was on the pitch.
Not only do they snuff out danger before it fully develops, but they’re both comfortable on the ball and able effortlessly play out from the back — especially Saliba, who was the third-best passer in the Premier League this season (amongst players who attempted 2,000 or more passes) with a 92.9 per cent competition rate.
The challenge for Saliba and Magalhães will be how to deal with a PSG attack that is improvisational in nature and doesn’t always rely on a traditional No. 9 as its main reference point. The French club’s top forwards (Bradley Barcola, Ousmane Dembélé and Gonçalo Ramos) routinely drift into wide spaces, leaving defenders to decide whether to follow them or hold the team’s defensive shape.
If the defenders do follow, they leave themselves vulnerable in the middle, giving dangerous winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia a chance to exploit the open space. If they hold firm, it can lead to overloads out wide. Either way, the fluidity and unpredictability of PSG’s attack will be something that Arsenal will have to overcome on Saturday.
Players to watch
Kvaratskhelia, Paris Saint-Germain – The Georgia international cemented his status as a world-class player by scoring 10 goals (tied for third-best in the tournament scoring race) and tallying six assists in 15 appearances, playing a major role in helping PSG reach its second connective Champions League final.
David Raya, Arsenal – The Spanish goalkeeper has been a standout for the Gunners, playing in all but one of his team’s 14 Champions League contests while registering an impressive nine clean sheets. He’s conceded just one goal in his last five Champions League appearances and just two in the knockout stage.
Burning questions
Arsenal has only trailed one time through 14 matches in this season’s Champions League. It was down a goal for all of 43 minutes in the first leg of the Round of 16 before earning a draw, so it's never had to get used to playing from behind. What happens if the Gunners find themselves in a trailing position against PSG on Saturday?
PSG has a remarkably fluid attack under manager Luis Enrique, even when it doesn’t use a traditional striker and goes with a false 9. But PSG hasn’t faced a team like Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, which is noted for being well structured and defensively rigid while often playing with four centre backs. Will PSG be able to break down the English champions?
Editor’s note
John Molinaro is one of the leading soccer journalists in Canada, having covered the game for over 27 years for several media outlets, including Sportsnet, CBC Sports and Sun Media. He is currently the editor-in-chief of TFC Republic, a website dedicated to in-depth coverage of Toronto FC and Canadian soccer.
