By Sam Love
After knocking out European giants Real Madrid in the Quarter Finals of the Champions League, Arsenal couldn’t get over the line against PSG, and have now become the third English side this season to fall to the French champions.
The result on the night ended in a 2-1 victory to the home side, and a 3-1 aggregate score, securing PSG a spot in the 2025 Champions League final where they will face Inter Milan, in Munich.
Arsenal opened the game positively, pressing high and maintaining a large proportion of possession, which they had to do to restrict PSG and stop them from getting out of their own half. In the first four minutes both Declan Rice and Gabriel Martinelli had great chances to put the Gunners in front early and mount the pressure on the home side. Yet again Gianluigi Donnarumma was PSG’s saviour as he made an incredible save to deny the Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard and keep the score at 0-0. But after this early flurry of chances for Arsenal the home side grew into the game creating chances of their own, most notably when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was inches away from opening the scoring with a superb strike, watching his effort come back at him off the post.
The deadlock was eventually broken by Fabian Ruiz in the 27th minute. A freekick was initially cleared by the Arsenal defence but only as far as Ruiz who blasted the ball brilliantly past David Raya. This goal gave the home side a 2-0 lead on aggregate and the Parc Des Princes, already buzzing, erupted into pandemonium. This was the last defining moment in the half and the home side went into the break 1-0 up.
Arsenal started the second half just like the first, with purpose, and intent on mounting a comeback. Donnarumma yet again came up with the goods to deny Bukayo Saka’s effort that looked almost certain to nestle into the top left corner. Just as Arsenal were looking threatening and getting back into the game, the referee was advised to go to the monitor, and eventually awarded a penalty to PSG after the ball had struck Myles Lewis-Skelly on the arm. But now it was the turn of the Arsenal keeper Raya to play hero, as he incredibly saved the penalty from Vitinha to keep the scoreline at 1-0.
Then in the 72nd minute, Achraf Hakimi put the game out of Arsenal’s reach with a superb strike into the bottom right corner, beyond the dive of Raya, giving PSG a commanding 3-0 lead on aggregate with roughly 20 minutes left to play. However, there was a late twist in the tale as Saka converted, the ball falling kindly for him to sweep in past Donnarumma to make it 2-1 on the night. The last action of the night involved Saka again, as he somehow missed the target from six yards out, keeping the score at 2-1 when it should have been 2-2.
After the game Mikel Arteta claimed that his side were “100% the better team”. But most people won’t be able to deny that the better team will be in the final in Munich on the 31st of May.
