As another season of club soccer winds down, Paris Saint-Germain and this current generation of Inter Milan have one glaring hole in their respective trophy cases: the UEFA Champions League.
The Champions League title has been PSG’s white whale since a Qatari ownership group took control of the club in 2011. The club tried to build around megastars Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, but lost in the 2020 final. The addition of Lionel Messi was supposed to put PSG over the top, but the team was knocked out in the round of 16 both seasons Messi was there. Now, without any of those three, PSG is on the precipice of history. Standing in their way is an Inter team unique compared to the rest of Europe’s elite in terms of makeup and tactical style. That hasn’t stopped them from making two Champions League finals in three seasons. This core of players has won everything in Italy. In Europe, they’ve taken down Bayern and Barcelona and went toe-to-toe with treble-winning Manchester City two years ago. But they have not crested the top of the European mountain since José Mourinho’s iconic treble-winning side in 2010. And this is probably the last chance with this group of players.
These two sides will meet in Munich on Saturday for the right to be named champions of Europe. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2025 Champions League final.
1. Twenty-three different clubs have won the Champions League (formerly European Cup) since its inception in 1955-56. PSG is hoping to become the 24th. They reached the final for the first time in 2020 before losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich. The Parisians have a chance to become the second French team to lift Europe’s most prestigious club trophy, after Marseille in 1993. Only one player from the starting XI from that 2020 loss is still with the club. Marquinhos played as a defensive midfielder that day; on Saturday, he’ll start at center back. Inter is making its seventh finals appearance and is hoping to become the seventh club in European history to win the top prize four times.
2. Neither PSG nor Inter Milan were viewed as close to favorites to get here by oddsmakers. When the tournament began in the fall, neither were in the top six of teams most likely to win the trophy. PSG’s journey to the final has been a roller coaster; their form in the initial league phase was very up-and-down. While the underlying expected-goals stats didn’t suggest they were a bad team, PSG was pretty uncompetitive in a 2-0 loss at Arsenal and a 1-0 loss at Bayern—two of their most high-profile games of the league phase. PSG also lost 2-1 at home to Atlético Madrid, prompting major questions about whether they’d even qualify for the knockout round. In the penultimate match week in January, they trailed 2-0 at home against Manchester City in the second half. If they had lost that match, they would not have reached the knockout stage at all. Instead, PSG scored four second-half goals and won 4-2. It turned their entire Champions League campaign around. They demolished French side Brest 10-0 over two legs in the playoff round and then knocked out three English teams—Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Arsenal—en route to this final appearance.
3. Inter has the oldest roster in Europe’s top five leagues, with an average age of 29.4 years old. Seven of the 11 players who are expected to start on Saturday for Inter played in the Champions League final two years ago against Manchester City. This match feels like their last, best chance at lifting the Champions League trophy. Manager Simone Inzaghi could depart the club following the game, and the squad needs real freshening up during the summer transfer window as its core group of players continues to age. Inter has won Serie A twice this decade, in 2021 and 2024. They won the Coppa Italia in 2022 and 2023. The only thing missing from this golden era of Internazionale soccer is a Champions League triumph.
4. PSG is at the opposite end of the age spectrum. They are the fourth youngest team in Europe’s top five leagues, with an average age of 24.4. It feels like PSG is ahead of schedule by making a run to the final in its first year following the departure of Mbappé. Replacing the French megastar shouldn’t have been as easy as PSG made it look this year, but you can make a convincing argument that the team is actually better without their former talisman. PSG’s youth manifests itself clearly in the squad’s statistical profile. The club ranks second in Europe’s top five leagues in take-ons per match and second in carries into the penalty area. This isn’t just a product of their overwhelming talent advantage over other French teams. They also rank first in the Champions League in both metrics, as they’re super reliant on youthful athleticism and dribbling quality to move the ball forward into dangerous areas of the pitch. An older team like Inter is the opposite—Inter is dead last in Europe in take-ons per match.
5. It’s worth discussing exactly how PSG is better this season after losing the player who scored 44 goals in all competitions last year. Manager Luis Enrique is a tactically demanding coach who wants to use all 10 outfield players to counterpress opponents and win the ball back immediately after losing it. Mbappé, for all of his attacking prowess, doesn’t really press out of possession. By inserting French youngsters Bradley Barcola and Désiré Doué—plus January addition Khvicha Kvaratskhelia—into those roles previously occupied by Mbappé, PSG is now much better at winning the ball high up the pitch. The club also made a key addition with rangy defensive midfielder João Neves, who contributes to winning the ball, too. When teams break the PSG press, Neves is often there to put out potential fires.
Instead of the predictable attack that so often ran through Mbappé, PSG now have four excellent dribblers and creators to terrify opponents. Enrique has deployed Ousmane Dembélé in the central areas of the pitch where he can use his two-footed ability to run the channel, come short, and dribble past opponents, too. Dembélé has also picked up the goal-scoring slack in Mbappé’s absence, netting 33 times in all competitions. Should PSG triumph in the Champions League, Dembélé could have a real shot at winning the Ballon d’Or.
6. Inter finished the season with the best underlying statistics in Serie A, even though they finished runner-up to Napoli by one point in the final table. Their performances did, however, decline as the season progressed. Inter had a plus-24.4 xG difference in the first 19 matches, half of the league season. From January 17 onward, Inter had a plus-9.9 xG difference. There are a variety of factors that could have contributed to this. Did Inter’s aging squad run out of steam? Did Inter prioritize the Champions League rather than Serie A because they had recently won Serie A titles? Did injuries to a couple of key players derail the title charge?
The trend line shows a clear downgrade in defensive metrics as the season continued. Inter conceded less than one expected goal per match in the first half of the league campaign, and then close to 1.25 in the second half. It’s a worrying sign for a defense that is facing arguably the second best attack in Europe (outside of Barcelona) on Saturday.
7. To elaborate on Dembélé’s Ballon d’Or case: This match will certainly have an impact on voting. Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Barcelona’s Raphinha have the best cases for domestic performances over the entire season. But Champions League success has usually mattered for this award, and both players’ clubs were knocked out in upsets. A good performance and win for Dembélé could cement his case after a rampant run through Ligue 1 and the Champions League this spring. Think of the narrative arc of Dembélé’s career. After emerging as a prodigy at Borussia Dortmund, he came to Barcelona as a 20-year-old in the shadow of Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar. Frequent injuries and inconsistent form plagued his six-year spell at Barcelona, and he quickly became a poster child for unfulfilled potential. Fast-forward to this season, and the now veteran, post-hype superstar is having a career year and has a chance to lead PSG to an elusive first Champions League trophy.
Dembélé had the opening goal of the semifinal against Arsenal and added an assist in the second leg. He scored PSG’s lone goal in the second-leg win against Liverpool in the round of 16. He added two assists in the quarterfinal against Villa. He’s been instrumental in this entire PSG turnaround. Dembélé has always existed in the shadow of Messi and Mbappé for club and country, but a win on Saturday could be his individual crowning moment.
8. The most interesting tactical battle in the final could come in the wide areas. Inter plays in a back three with two wing backs that are constantly bombing forward, while PSG plays in a more traditional back four with two full backs that balance offensive and defensive responsibilities. Inter right wing back Denzel Dumfries was the most important attacking player in their semifinal upset against Barcelona. In the first leg in Barcelona, Dumfries scored two goals on set pieces, plus an assist in the game’s first minute. He then assisted two goals in the second leg in Milan. Dumfries and left wing back Federico DiMarco have the third- and fourth-most attacking penalty-area touches on the Inter team, behind only the striker tandem of Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram. Inter doesn’t get much forward thrust from its midfield at all and thus relies on the wing backs (plus the occasional underlapping center back) to provide the attacking support.
PSG left back Nuno Mendes has recently had some of the toughest matchups in world football, coming up against Liverpool’s Mo Salah and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka in the Round of 16 and semifinal, respectively. Mendes has held up very well defensively, but Dumfries is a different challenge than Salah and Saka. On the Inter left, Dimarco should have a ton of freedom to get forward and attack, because PSG’s Achraf Hakimi is an extremely aggressive full back. Hakimi has more than double the number of opposing penalty-area touches as his teammate Mendes in the Champions League this year. Could Dimarco exploit the space vacated by Hakimi as Inter look to counter after winning possession in their own half?
9. Set pieces have been a major key for Inter in their path to pulling consecutive upsets of Bayern Munich and Barcelona to reach the final. Inter scored on a corner in the second leg of the quarterfinal, then followed it up by scoring on both of its corners in the first leg of the semifinal. Set pieces can often be the great equalizer, and PSG hasn’t done a great job of defending them this year. Because of their usual territorial dominance in Ligue 1, the Parisians don’t face a ton of set-piece volume. However, PSG conceded 11 goals from set pieces in Ligue 1 this year, which was tied for the second most in the league. While center backs Marquinhos and Willian Pacho are pretty good aerially as central defenders, the lack of size in PSG’s midfield leaves them vulnerable to taller, more physical players. Inter is fourth out of 36 Champions League teams in aerial dual win rate and will test PSG with the opportunities they get.
10. Inter Milan wouldn’t be in this match without massive saves from goalkeeper Yann Sommer. Inter sent former goalkeeper Andre Onana—who started the 2023 final—to Manchester United for $61 million, then acquired Sommer for $6.75 million that same summer. It’s a nice bit of business given that Sommer’s shot-stopping has been elite throughout the entire tournament. Inter only allowed one goal in eight league-phase matches. And while they did allow six to Barcelona across two legs, it would have been more if not for Sommer—he made three world-class saves in the second leg. Sommer is the highest-rated goalkeeper in the Champions League this season with 5.1 goals prevented over expected in 14 matches.
11. If we do get to a penalty shootout, PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma has an incredible big-game track record. Sommer had a famous penalty save to win a shootout against Mbappé and France in Euro 2020, but his overall track record is more mixed. Donnarumma had back-to-back penalty shootout wins against Spain and England to lift Italy to the title in the same tournament. PSG’s keeper has won six of his seven career shootouts, including the Round of 16 upset at Anfield this season. Penalties are notoriously coin-flip endeavors, but Donnarumma’s size and anticipation has helped him save a ton of high-profile penalties for more than half a decade.
12. Inter doesn’t profile like a team that is going to try to press or sustain possession against PSG in this final, but that is an area of real weakness for the Parisians, as shown in the second leg of the quarterfinals against Villa. PSG led that match 5-1 on aggregate. Then PSG conceded three goals in a row to Villa and needed multiple excellent Donnarumma saves to prevent blowing the lead entirely. Against Arsenal in the second leg, it was Donnarumma again who came up with a couple big early saves to prevent Arsenal from drawing level. PSG wants to play Enrique’s style at every opportunity by tilting the field on their opponents and dominating the ball. Most teams don’t try to punch PSG in the mouth because PSG has so much dynamic open-field talent that it’s risky to get drawn into a transition game. But PSG aren’t built to protect a lead by defending deep without the ball. They aren’t a defend-and-counter team, nor are they a contain-and-counter team like Real Madrid has excelled at in recent years. Inter might fall behind, but by taking more chances in possession, Inter will have opportunities to play its way back into the game.
13. When I try to envision this match tactically, it looks most similar to Aston Villa and PSG’s first-leg matchup in Paris. PSG had the majority of the ball and dominated the territory. Villa had one devastatingly efficient counterattack and scored on it, and Villa’s defense forced PSG into low-probability chances on tough finishes. But it still wasn’t enough. Doué scored on a curling goal from outside the penalty area to level the match at one, and Kvaratskhelia dribbled past multiple Villa defenders before finishing with his left foot into the top netting from a tight angle. It wasn’t until stoppage time that PSG truly broke open the Villa defense to create a massive chance for Nuno Mendes’s goal. Prior to those final five minutes, PSG had 25 shots for only 1.4 expected goals.
You could envision a successful defensive performance for Inter where the Italian side allows a ton of low-quality chances and relies on Sommer’s shot-stopping to prevent goals. It’s a risky approach given how much attacking quality PSG has, but Inter has proven its defense is difficult to fully crack open. While the defense has declined over the course of the season in Serie A, Inter has the second lowest xG per shot conceded in the Champions League.
14. Betting markets have PSG as the -156 favorite to lift the trophy on Saturday in Munich. That equates to a roughly 59 percent chance of winning their first-ever Champions League. Inter is more than comfortable in the underdog role, as they pulled upsets over two legs against the German and Spanish champions in the last two rounds. Oddsmakers gave Inter even less of a chance against Manchester City two years ago, only for Inter to be right there with a chance to tie or even win that match late. Opta’s Analyst Power Rankings have PSG as the fourth-best team in the world, followed by Inter at sixth.
15. It’s easy to make the case that PSG has simply been the best team in the world in the second half of the season, has a more well-rounded team, and thus they should win. They should be able to control the game with their possession and elite passing midfield. But Inter have been so good as underdogs because they’re well-coached, they are experienced, and they are comfortable defending without the ball. Inter has the advantage on set pieces, and all it takes is one moment in these kinds of matches. In a classic sporting battle of the aging old guard vs. new kids on the block, the kids certainly have more talent and upside. But does the old guard have one more round in a knockout fight? You’d be foolish to count them out.
