Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory.
Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute.
Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five.
Photo: Keystone via AP
Inter were simply no match for the French club, who recorded the biggest victory by any team in the final in the 70-year history of the European Cup and Champions League.
“This means everything. It’s our dream. It’s incredible. The result is not by magic. I’m happy we did it like this,” PSG midfielder Vitinha said.
The triumph for the Parisians follows over a decade of huge investment from their Qatari owners, and comes five years after they lost to Bayern Munich in their only previous final appearance.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Already domestic league and cup double winners, they are just the second French winners of European football’s biggest prize — Marseille were the first in 1993, when they beat AC Milan in a final also played in Munich.
It is also a second Champions League for PSG coach Luis Enrique, who won with Lionel Messi’s Barcelona in 2015.
This youthful PSG side is arguably the best the competition has seen since, one that has been intelligently pieced together over the last two years and fully unleashed this season following the departure of Kylian Mbappe.
“It was the objective since the start of last season to make history. I have felt a really strong connection with the players and the supporters,” Luis Enrique told broadcaster Canal Plus.
For a bewildered Inter, there was to be no first Champions League title since 2010, as they failed to add to their three previous triumphs in the competition.
Simone Inzaghi’s side have got to the final twice in three seasons and lost both, and this defeat comes a week after they missed out on the Serie A title to Napoli.
They end the campaign trophyless, and their aging side would need to be rebuilt.
“PSG absolutely deserved to win this match. We are very disappointed,” Inzaghi said. “As a coach I am proud of our campaign, but we’re not satisfied with tonight’s game. PSG outplayed us.”
“I thanked the players for what they did this season. We won no silverware, but I’m proud,” he said.
PSG gave their opponents no chance from the off on a sweaty night at the Allianz Arena, going ahead in the 12th minute.
It was a glorious goal, Vitinha threading a pass to Doue who squared for Hakimi to finish before refusing to celebrate against his former club.
It was also the earliest goal in a Champions League final since 2019, and recent history was firmly against Inter.
The last final in which both teams scored was in 2018, while the last team to concede first but still win were Real Madrid in 2014.
Soon Inter were further behind with a goal from a counterattack.
Willian Pacho prevented Inter from winning a corner, his clearance falling to Kvaratskhelia, who released Ousmane Dembele. His pass found Doue and the youngster, preferred in the starting line-up to Bradley Barcola, fired home via a deflection off Federico Dimarco.
Inter only really came close to scoring in the first half when Marcus Thuram headed wide at a corner, but things got worse after the break.
Their back line was in disarray as PSG made it 3-0 at 63 minutes, Dembele’s flick releasing Vitinha before he set up Doue to beat goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
Doue came off shortly after to rapturous applause, but his teammates were far from done.
Dembele sent Kvaratskhelia away to make it 4-0 in the 73rd minute, and the 19-year-old Mayulu played a one-two with Barcola before lashing in the fifth at 86 minutes.
That rounded off an incredible night, with PSG becoming the first team to score five goals in the final since Benfica in 1962.
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
Ollie Watkins’ second-half header on Thursday gave Aston Villa a 1-0 win over Lille OSC in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League round-of-16 tie. Just past the hour mark, Ezri Konsa sent a deep pass that Emi Buendia headed to Watkins in the home team’s box. The England forward noticed goalkeeper Berke Ozer was off his line before sending a looping header over him and into the net. Minutes later, Watkins wasted a chance to double the advantage when he failed to score in a one-on-one with the ’keeper. Nottingham Forest were stunned 1-0 by Danish club Midtjylland, with substitute Cho
Brice Turang and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s consecutive RBI singles proved to be the difference in the US’ 5-3 win over Canada in a World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarterfinal on Friday night in Houston. The US faces the Dominican Republic, which crushed South Korea 10-0 in seven innings in its quarter-final, in a semifinal Sunday in Miami for a spot in Tuesday’s championship. The Dominican team has won all five games in this WBC by a combined margin of 51-10. It appeared the US squad was headed toward a cozy victory when it built a 5-0 lead by the sixth inning. A first-inning RBI groundout
RSS