Saint-Germain maintains its throne as European champion

French Paris Saint-Germain retained its throne as champion of the European Champions League, beating English Arsenal 4-3 on penalties, after they tied 1-1 in regular and extra time yesterday in Budapest.

Saint-Germain succeeded in achieving a French precedent by winning the title twice, repeating the achievement of Spanish Real Madrid, the last team to win the Champions League title twice in a row, noting that the Royal Club went further by winning three consecutive titles between 2016 and 2018.

The defending champion won the final by benefiting from substitute Eberechi Eze and Brazilian Gabriel missing the second and fifth penalty kicks, while Spanish goalkeeper David Raya blocked Portuguese Nuno Mendes’ third kick.

Arsenal took the lead through German Kai Havertz (5), and Ousmane Dembele equalized from a penalty kick (65), but then left injured in the last minute of regular time.

Havertz stunned the French team with the opening goal five minutes after the referee’s first whistle, when he received a ball that Brazilian defender Marquinhos wanted to deflect, and it collided with Belgian Leandro Trossard. The German ran with it and entered the penalty area, shooting from a difficult angle into the roof of Safonov’s goal.

With his goal, Havertz became the third player to score a goal in the Champions League final with two different teams after Croatian Mario Mandzukic (Juventus, Italy, Bayern Munich, Germany) and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, England, Real Madrid, Spain).

Saint-Germain suffered a blow after Dembélé was injured and left the field, to be replaced by Portuguese Goncalo Ramosh (90 + 6).

This injury, which caused the player to appear upset during his substitution, worries the French national team and its coach Didier Deschamps, less than two weeks before the start of the World Cup finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada.