Paris St Germain won their first Champions League title after defeating Inter Milan 5-0.
PSG have completed their three-season win this season, including Ligue 1, the French Cup and the Champions League. They reached the top of Europe on a night when 19-year-old striker Desire Doue affirmed his talent to the world with impressive performances.
Who needs Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe when they have Doue? PSG know the answer to that question when they finally ended their wait to win the Champions League. They have built a squad of young players rather than expensive superstars.
Achraf Hakimi's 12th-minute opening goal helped PSG take the lead. Then, Doue's double and goals from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Senny Mayulu created the biggest gap in the history of a Champions League final.
With this victory, Luis Enrique became the second coach in history to win a treble with two different teams after Pep Guardiola.
Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi said they would welcome a smooth start from PSG and then stabilize the match.
At that time, people hoped that PSG's pressure would decrease a little, allowing Inter to counterattack and start holding the ball in the midfield area. Or they will rely on Alessandro Bastoni's cross-court passes to Denzel Dumfries to free Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez. Ideally, they will have set pieces and exploit those situations well.
However, Inter were 2 goals behind and things became much more difficult. A already disrupted midfield cannot control the ball and cannot create a breakthrough.
Conversely, with a 2-goal lead, PSG could spend resources to disable Inter's wingers and the striker pair up front.
At that time, unless Inter scored a goal before the end of the first half, it would be difficult for Inzaghi to turn the game around. Because, the truth is, Inter have rarely fallen behind throughout the season. Before the final, they had only 8 minutes behind in this season's Champions League.
Inter have gone through many difficulties but have never been defeated and they do not know how to react to PSG.
Inzaghi said before the match that his players had learned a lesson from the 2023 Champions League final loss to Manchester City. And they will play better when facing PSG. However, in the end, things got worse when they lost 5-0.
Inter, despite their experience, have been very bad and they have been frozen on the biggest stage. All their discourses before the match were empty. They were 2 goals behind before the end of the first half, and that was when the records books began to dusty. It is clear that Inter are aiming for a potentially historic defeat.
Inter have had their biggest first-half loss since Liverpool were led 3-0 by AC Milan in 2005. While Rafael Benitez's side fought for the penalty spot, there was no sign that Inter would come back in Munich.
When PSG accelerated in the second half, that historic failure appeared with a gap of 4 goals. Bradley Barcola seemed to have saved Inter from a 0-5 defeat when he missed a good chance in the 82nd minute. However, substitute Senny Mayulu gave a strong blow 4 minutes later to end one of Inter's worst nights in history.
"Today's team is not like Inter as I know. We were the first to realize it, but nothing could overshadow my pride in the players' journey. PSG are stronger and deserve to win the Champions League.
We did not start well, conceded early and were caught up in the opponent's playing style. This made it easier for PSG to play. This defeat was clearly bitter, but it cannot be denied what the whole team did to get here" - Inzaghi admitted after the final match.
