PSG beat Inter 5-0 to win the Champions League: Live updates and reaction – The New York Times

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Paris Saint-Germain thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich to win the Champions League for the first time.
Former Inter player Achraf Hakimi opened the scoring for PSG, but it was the 19-year-old French forward Desire Doue who stole the show.
He doubled PSG’s lead with a deflected effort before scoring a wonderful second goal after the half-time break.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia added a fourth and the 19-year-old substitute Senny Mayulu smashed home another to complete the rout.
Follow reaction to PSG’s sensational victory below and share your thoughts by emailing live@theathletic.com.
GO FURTHER
Luis Enrique’s PSG produced a footballing exhibition to destroy Inter and win Champions League
Explosive starts accelerated PSG past Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal in the knockouts, and their two early strikes tonight quickly put the game to bed. It might sound simple, but consistently striking early in the knockout stages has helped them to seize control and throw their opponents’ carefully laid game plans into disarray. Luis Enrique’s side scored nine goals within the opening 20 minutes across their Champions League matches.
The PSG machine clicked into gear almost instantly, suffocating Inter with their pressing and relentlessly pulling them out of shape with fluid rotations.
Beyond the obvious advantage of taking the lead, PSG’s early goals provide the perfect platform to unleash their devastating counter-attacks — no side has scored more than their six on the break in this season’s competition.
Inzaghi’s side, unaccustomed to chasing games having trailed for only 16 minutes all tournament before the final, were forced to overcommit in search of an equaliser. That opened the door for PSG to launch a lightning-quick break just before the 20-minute mark, ending with Doue’s deflected finish.
The Athletic’s writers broke down the key moments from the final here.
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Desire Doue has been enormous fun this season. PSG have such a glut of talent that standing out in their crowd would be a challenge for almost anyone, but Doue has often been a delight — and perhaps that’s because he has felt so new and novel during this Champions League run.
In material terms, Doue had an exceptional impact on this final. His drifting movement behind Inter’s defence created the first goal and he scored the second, running the length of the pitch to keep up with a counter-attack and eventually receive Ousmane Dembele’s superb final pass.
His second goal was more than a moment; it was history. It put the game beyond doubt and put Inter away.
First and foremost, his assist and goals have won his team the European Cup for the first time. That matters more than anything else. But his part in that historic achievement comes in a specific context — he has spent the year gently exploding into the mainstream, with this final crescendo in Munich, in the biggest club game of all.
The Athletic’s writers broke down the key moments from the final here.
Inter were on course for a treble going into the end of April. Emulating the immortals of 2010 was an opportunity they cautiously believed in seizing.
In the end, Inter finished the season empty-handed — unless the Club World Cup figures as a goal.
Make no mistake, this has been a painful week for Inter.
Losing the Scudetto on the final day was hard to take. But the pain would have been salved had they won the Champions League, the only trophy this group of players is missing.
Getting over the disappointing denouement of this campaign will take a long time. It will live with these players for the rest of their careers.
The Athletic’s writers broke down the key moments from the final here.
Can you really have much European Cup heritage when your club is only 54 years young, has spent only 40 of those years playing at this rarefied level, and just 12 of them at these late, defining stages of the competition?
Well, yes you can, if you’re Paris Saint-Germain: you can have a heritage of failing and falling short, of calamity and collapse, of wasting talent and resources at an unprecedented scale.
In recent years, such a commanding first-half performance — soaring into a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes — might still have set us up for another night of schadenfreude across much of the rest of Europe.
But as everyone has been at pains to point out on the road to Munich and throughout PSG’s run to this final, those Benzema hat-tricks at the Bernabeu, late Rashford penalties and ‘remontadas’ now feel a thing of the past.
The Athletic’s writers broke down the key moments from the final here.
PSG and Tottenham will go head to head for another trophy having both triumphed in Europe this season.
They will meet for the UEFA Super Cup on August 13 at the Stadio Friuli in Udine, Italy.
Make your calendars for that one!
Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of Paris Saint-Germain, spoke to CBS Sports after his club's breakthrough European title.
💬 “It's like a dream … If you told me you're going to win 5-0, I'd say impossible. It's amazing for France. Its not just for Paris. France deserves better. We have a good league, good clubs. I'm sure we're going to be getting better as a result of a French club winning this title.”
“The team proved that we have the best manager in the world, the best players.”
GO FURTHER
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Not only were PSG dominant this evening, they were simply the best throughout the entirety of the Champions League knockouts.
Some stats from Opta to highlight just how good they have been in the last few months.
And then the victorious PSG manager discussed the performance of his players.
💬 “There was so much tension coming into the game. I don’t know what to think about it. I don’t know if we can call it a masterpiece.
“We got off to a fantastic start, we found the right balance in terms of motivation. My team was exceptional. There was so much pressure from Inter, it was very intense. Dembele was pressing Acerbi and the centre-backs, he was incredible. He didn’t give them room to breathe – their defenders couldn’t find their feet. And as soon as we had chances, we found the net.
“We were in cruise control. We had a great game.”
Luis Enrique was asked after the match after the emotional tifo that the PSG fans created for him depicting his late daughter planting a flag on the pitch.
💬 “It was very emotional. It was beautiful to think that the supporters have thought about me and my family, I don’t need to win the Champions League, or any game, to think about my daughter.
“She’s here, supporting my family, we feel her presence, even when we lose, it's all about pulling everything we went through together and take the positives out of the negative situation. That’s my mentality, our mentality as a family.
“It was fantastic to see but don’t need a trophy to think about my daughter. She’s always here.”
Nicolo Barella struck a despondent tone when speaking to Sky Sports after Inter's historically heavy defeat.
💬 “We are very disappointed. This defeat in the final almost cancels out everything that we did so far. I am very proud of the team and what we did until this point.
“Congratulations to Paris, they were better on every level. They had more energy. This is football, sometimes defeats happen. I am happy to be part of this group of players.”
Simone Inzaghi also discussed what Inter can take from today's defeat.
💬 “We need to learn from defeats and come out stronger. This hurts like the Istanbul final (in 2023). It was a different game. Paris were constantly first on the ball. We needed to do much better.
“We gave everything we had to get to this point, playing 58 games this season. We're disappointed, sad. The players gave their all.”
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Losing the Champions League final by a record margin has to be a horrible feeling. Doing so when you were hoping to make up for a narrow loss in the final only two years ago has to make it even worse. Still, Inter manager Simone Inzaghi was able to find positives to take from his club's season.
💬 “Paris deserved to win this game and the trophy. We're disappointed, but the path to this point was great. As coach, I am proud of my players. The game, of course, wasn't good enough on our part.
“I thanked my players for what they did this season. We didn't win a trophy, but I am proud to be their coach.”
There are few players who have ever had a better season than Khvicha Kvaratskhelia — he has won two league titles, a domestic cup and now the biggest prize of all. He spoke to TNT Sports a few minutes ago.
💬 “It's crazy. I can't believe that I'm a Champions League winner today so it's a dream come true. I cannot describe my crazy emotions. I'm so proud to be Georgian and I think they are happy in my country.”
He gave a lovely answer when asked about joining this group of players midway through the season.
“We did it together. This is a crazy team, I'm just happy to be one of them. I was very happy because I really wanted to come here and today we saw that it was the right choice. I'm happy to be here with these amazing guys.”
Gianluigi Donnarumma may have only been called upon to make two saves tonight, but he was instrumental in Paris Saint-Germain's run to the final, including a pair of stand-out performances in the semi-final against Arsenal. He spoke to Sky Sports after the final about PSG's journey this season.
💬 “We were almost out a few times during the season then we managed to progress and completed an extraordinary season.”
On Luis Enrique: “Our coach gave us the freedom and kept us calm. This is his philosophy. He prepared the final in the best possible way, and we saw that.”
As Michael just mentioned, seven managers have won this great trophy with two teams.
But Luis Enrique can go one better than that considering he has just secured the second treble of his career, having done the same with Barcelona in 2014-15.
He joins compatriot Pep Guardiola as the only two managers to have won European trebles on two occasions.
There's something in that Spanish water!
With PSG's victory, Luis Enrique becomes the seventh manager to win the Champions League with two different clubs, having first done so with Barcelona in 2015. He joins:
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Vitinha briefly spoke to CBS Sports in the midst of the celebrations.
💬 “I don't remember a final ending 5-0. It was really perfect, a great exhibition. I couldn't imagine (this). It means a lot to me. It's not like I'm old but it took a long time to get here. And I'm just really, really happy.”
Desire Doue was the star of the show in Munich and he spoke to TNT Sports after collecting his medal.
💬 “I have no words, that was just incredible.Simply incredible. I have no words, sorry!”
The 19-year-old was then asked about his manager, Luis Enrique.
“He's been here for two years and he's made history for the club. Tactically, mentally he's an unbelievable coach, as a human being too. It's a pleasure to wotk with him.”
Giuseppe Marotta, Chairman and CEO of Inter, spoke to Sky after his club's comprehensive defeat:
💬 “Absolutely a negative night, we are sorry for our fans. It was very difficult to reach this final, I want to thank our players and the coach.
“The future? We said we would see each other next week. It's not a bad night that erases the merits of (manager Simone) Inzaghi.”

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