Kolkata: The Champions League trophy has a new home. One where it could now be a frequent visitor if what a young and skilful Paris St-Germain (PSG) did this summer is any indication.
Till Saturday, the Champions League had meant heartbreak for PSG. It was against them that Barcelona showed impossible was nothing, Marcus Rashford helped Manchester United escape to victory and Karim Benzema scored a hattrick as Real Madrid pulled off a heist. Borussia Dortmund stunned them last term and the only time they had played the final before this, PSG had come up short.
PSG compensated for all that hurt, for 12 successive knockout round qualifications ending in disappointment, with so much style and substance that the 5-0 dismantling of Inter Milan can now be a benchmark for excellence. Their energy made Inter look inert and, suddenly, very old. And PSG’s finesse threw into sharp relief the heavy touches and misplaced passes from the three-time former champions who were in search of a treble not so long ago.
“The image that remains cancels a bit the great season that we have had,” midfielder Nicolo Barella said after Inter’s second Champions league final in three seasons.
At an average age of 24 years and three months, PSG are the youngest after Ajax in 1994-95 to win the world’s toughest club competition. Three days from his 20th birthday, Desire Doue became the youngest to score and assist in a Champions League final, as per Opta. Senny Mayulu is even younger and his combination play with Bradley Barcola, 22, for the fifth goal can be a pointer to the future.
PSG caught Inter with their fluid forward play and interchange of positions when they had the ball and pressed them to suffocation when they did not. Doue, the wide right, was on the left to meet Vitinha’s defence-splitting pass and Achraf Hakimi, the right back, was where a centre-forward should have been. But PSG do not play a centre-forward so Hakimi did the job with his fourth Champions League goal. This was Hakimi’s ninth goal contribution of the season, the most by a defender since 2001, said Opta.
None of this was unplanned. “If I have the ball, I attack, if I don’t, I am a defender.” This was how he wanted PSG to play, manager Luis Enrique had said at the start of the season. It showed all night in Munich.
With four different scorers – PSG had seven players with five goals in this campaign – the midfield pulling Inter apart to the point that Hakan Calhanoglu and Henrikh Mkhitaryan had to be replaced and Gianluigi Donnarumma being alert to a Marcus Thuram shot in the 75th, the winners were close to perfection. “We were in cruise control,” said Enrique, the only manager other than Pep Guardiola to win a treble with two clubs.
Ousmane Dembele, the designated false nine, didn’t score but helped create the second, third and fourth goals. For the second goal, Dembele showed his speed, but for the rest of the night he played like a No.10 along with Vitinha, who is supposed to be a deep-lying midfielder. Dembele unhinged Inter’s backline with measured passes, and in one instant, with a back-heel. That wasn’t all he did.
“Dembele was pressing (Francesco) Acerbi and the centre-backs… He didn’t give them room to breathe… would give Dembele the Ballon d’Or for how he defended today!” said Enrique.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia did not do what he usually does, draw defenders to him and create space for Dembele or fire accurate deliveries, but scored the fourth goal and helped in the counter-attack that led to the second.
That was in the 20th minute and summed up the contrast between the teams. Nicolo Barella thought he had done enough to win a corner-kick – Inter’s best chances came from them but Acerbi and then Thuram failed to keep headers on target – only for Willian Pacho to set up the counter-attack. Doue was brilliant in his movements all night, running the length of the pitch to score his first and producing a skilful finish, to another brilliant ball from Vitinha, for his second in the 63rd minute. No goals or assists in his last eight matches and then this.
The early goals are PSG’s forte, they have scored the most (9) in the first 20 minutes. It slayed Inter who had trailed for only 16 minutes in Europe this term. It is worth pointing out that before this became the biggest margin ever in a Champions League final, four of the last five had ended 1-0. And there could have been more had Dembele not missed from close, Barcola and Doue not gone wide.
Victories this comfortable in a final tend to distort reality but as Manchester City rebuild, Inter grapple with the sense of an ending, Real Madrid adjust to life with Xabi Alonso, Liverpool deal with balancing Premier League and Champions League, Arsenal look to step up, Bayern to translate domestic superiority to Europe and Barcelona find a way to improve defensively, PSG will be the team to watch out for.
Once a collection of stars, they are now a collective that knows no fear. Bring on the Club World Cup.