Sport
PSG are nearing Champions League glory
PSG have one foot in the Champions League final. Their 1-0 away win over Arsenal means Luis Enrique’s team are now just one game away from a meeting with Barcelona or Inter Milan. The way the French giants have played in 2025, they may be the favourites against either opponent. PSG’s time might finally be here.
PSG didn’t play at their best at the Emirates Stadium. In fact, they needed Gianluigi Donnarumma to save them more than once as the Italian goalkeeper worked hard for his clean sheet. Arsenal had opportunities to equalise after Ousmane Dembele’s opener for the visitors after just four minutes of play.
And yet Arsenal were still limited by the fear factor PSG have. You could sense it in the way Mikel Arteta set up his team to have control, not to create. The Gunners did all they could to stop PSG as an attacking force, and largely succeeded, but were unable to impose their own game as a consequence.
Of course, Arsenal aren’t the first team to have felt the fear against PSG this season. Over the course of the 2024/25 campaign, certainly since the turn of the year, the French giants have established themselves as European frontrunners. They have been the team to beat since knocking Liverpool out of the Champions League.
In the opening 20 minutes of the semi-final first leg against Arsenal, PSG had 76% possession. They pegged the Gunners back inside their own half. They couldn’t get out. Whenever Arsenal won the ball back, two or three PSG players were on top of them immediately. Vitinha and Joao Neves were particularly imposing.
The movement of Dembele as PSG’s number nine also gave Arsenal problems. The runs of Achraf Hakimi, Neves and Fabian Ruiz were pinning back the home team’s backline, opening up space for Dembele to drop into. From there the French international had the freedom to pose a threat to David Raya’s goal, as he did for the opener.
PSG have a similar fear factor to the kind Pep Guardiola’s great Barcelona team had. Against the French champions, as was the case against the Catalans, it’s about surviving. It’s about getting through the 90 minutes without suffering too much damage and hoping that luck will be on your side in scoring a goal or two.
