The clash of contrasts that makes PSG vs Inter Milan a fascinating Champions League final
In the Inter Milan camp, Nicolo Barella was reflecting on the rare atmosphere at moments like this. The midfielder was on this stage two years ago, of course, so has even more to dwell on. “A lot of things go through your mind on the eve of the Champions League final.”
Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique was still considering how to press Inter, but of course his daughter was somewhere in his thoughts. His boss, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, whose own ultimate boss is the Emir of Qatar, was being feted as the man of the hour in the Uefa hotel. Through his presidency of PSG, he has risen to become one of the most powerful figures in European football, and that extended here to calming the nerves of tense staff. “Under control, under control,” he smiled.
As Barella touched upon, there is little in football like the atmosphere in a big host city on the eve of this match. There’s the growing excitement of the fans, already visible in numbers, offset by that unique stillness among the teams.
Thomas Tuchel, who was the last coach to take PSG to this stage, has admitted that the Champions League final is the only game that made him feel nervous. It remains unique, what they all reach for. There is still a classic glory under all the modern issues.
And in a football world where so much has become predictable and repeatable, largely due to clubs like state-owned PSG and a domestic power such as Inter, there is a genuine novelty to this game.
It is the first time the two clubs have ever met, in any setting. In this setting, they are both aiming to make up for lost finals. PSG lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich in 2020. Inter lose 1-0 to Manchester City in 2023.
The very names of the winners touch on another novelty to this game. It is the first final that hasn’t featured an English or Spanish club, or Bayern Munich, since 2004. In fact, the only previous final between Italian and French clubs was in this very city in 1993, the first campaign when the old European Cup became the Champions League. It also represented France’s only trophy to date, as Olympique Marseille beat the great AC Milan 1-0 in the Olympiastadion. That was under some controversy, as Marseille were soon stripped of the French title and relegated for match-fixing.
They weren’t stripped of the Champions League, and it means the historic record shows that Munich always gives us new winners. The city’s four finals have ensured all of Nottingham Forest, Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea also won their first European Cups, as well as Marseille.
This has of course been talked about a lot in the PSG camp. Luis Enrique has inspired a belief that they can finally win their first, and just France’s second.
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Except, it would not just be France’s Champions League. It would also be Qatar’s, who are now envisaging their second great “sportswashing” moment after the 2022 World Cup. These are the modern issues above that classic glory. Victory would be politically used, just like 2022 was. Will the Emir again bestow a bisht on someone?
One of the reasons PSG are even here, of course, is because they have jettisoned two of the stars from that epic final in Lusail, in Leo Messi and Kylian Mbappe. Luis Enrique has instead been able to build a young, intense and invigorating team, that has commonly been described as “a breath of fresh air”. That is quite the status given that expenditure remains huge, even on young talent like Bradley Barcola and Desire Doue. Inter’s entire revenue is almost half of PSG’s wage bill, which is close to £600bn.
It also makes the rise of Simone Inzaghi’s side all the more remarkable. Inter have twice defied expectation to reach this stage, only to twice have to play against state-owned clubs. PSG’s players and staff obviously want this, but there is another element. That’s modern football.
Inter, who have had their own ownership issues in recent years, want to burnish their glorious history. This would be a fourth European Cup, putting them sixth on the pantheon with Ajax. And that when Italian football has been on a low. This team have had to go to the depths of their will to get here.
Such aspirations makes Inzaghi’s comment on the eve of the final even more conspicuous.
“We need to go out there not with obsession but with desire.”
The world saw plenty of that in that sensational semi-final win over Barcelona, itself hailed as maybe the greatest European tie.
And, in pure football terms, that is the exciting aspect about this final. The tactical dynamics are similar to that semi-final, right up to how one of Luis Enrique’s great successes has been in imposing the Barcelona ideology onto a notoriously fractious PSG.
The great hope is that we see something similar. It has been a while since there has been a truly great final, after all. That is shown in how it’s seven years since both finalists scored, and 20 years since both finalists each scored more than twice.
If styles make finals as well as fights, one club insider made a notable comment on the contrast. There was even a chuckle at how it could be construed as conforming to national stereotypes, if it weren’t for the globalist nature of club football now.
“It’s like haute cuisine against spaghetti pomodoro,” the source says. PSG play the most sophisticated modern football possible, where they constantly surprise the opposition. It’s that intricate. It’s most visible in the exhilarating footwork of Kvicha Kvaratshkelia and Ousmane Dembele.
Against that, most teams know what Inter are going to do but they also know they’re going to do it very well. That’s what Barca found. It’s high quality.
And it isn’t all predictable, either. Hansi Flick, like Pep Guardiola before him in 2023, found Inter very difficult to press due to their intensity. That is most visible in their own wide players, in Denzel Dumfries and Federico Dimarco.
This is what Luis Enrique was wrestling with on the eve of the game, after weeks of preparation. Inter have had a much more demanding period, given they went head to head with Napoli for Serie A. Second place has made this final all the more important.
That forms just another factor and sub-plot that may well decide this final, from whether PSG can really rise now the moment is here to whether Lauturo Martinez can score the goal that would settle all debates.
Barella is right. There’s so much to think about, so much to dwell on. That’s because there’s still no glory like it. This city knows that as well as any other.
