PSG marked the story on Saturday evening by winning the first Champions League in its history against Inter Milan, after an intense and controlled final beating all the records on the lawn of the Allianz Arena in Munich. From the final whistle (5-0), a wave of fervor swept through Paris: thousands of supporters invaded the Champs-Élysées, while the Eiffel Tower illuminated in the colors of the club. The celebrations lasted all weekend, with concerts, fireworks and jubilation scenes in several districts of the capital. Sunday evening, the Parc des Princes hosted a moving ceremony in the presence of players, staff and supporters, who came to commune one last time around this historic coronation. In Clairefontaine, the players of the French team, gathered in preparation for the League of Nations, carefully followed the final. Impressed by the collective performance of PSG, they praised this resounding success, which resonates as a national pride when approaching a large competition.
The coach Didier Deschamps had not been late to congratulate PSG: “It's great for them. All PSG supporters, players, employees, the president, the French coach and football. It is a new victory finally for a French club. There are a lot of positive waves. Gifted ? It is not obvious given his age and his lack of experience of being so efficient. He was like the team. Désiré has already shown its qualities before but there it is in the Champions League final. Already that he had great self -confidence, it was a very strong moment in his career. It will be necessary to manage it but as everything is square in his head … It is very good for him to be so efficient in the final of the Champions League». But at the start of the week, tributes and congratulations from Clairefontaine did not stop, at a time when the Blues will face Spain Thursday evening in Stuttgart in the semi-finals of the League of Nations.
The players and the staff always impressed
Newly called in the French team, Rayan Cherki revealed behind the scenes of Saturday evening at the Château de Clairefontaine, all picking up PSG for his victory: “We watched the match all together, it was a magnificent match. PSG dominated the final from start to finish, we were very happy for our partners, they deserve it, they did a magnificent champions league so they finish the work beautifully and we are very happy for them. They were impressive from start to finish. Inter has not seen the light of day. When PSG is a day like that, they are good in all aspects ”. While he said that “the two best players in the world were French”, Cherki was also invited to speak of Désiré Doué, a man of the match with 2 goals and 1 go during the final: “I think we're all going to answer the same thing, it is extremely strong. It has a significant margin of progression still. When we see the match he made in the final we can only applaud and he deserves it. Because he's good everywhere, he works so it's logical and I still wish him to live hundreds of matches like that».
Same story with Manu Koné who was all the more impressed by the Parisians, being himself a player of AS Roma and knowing perfectly the difficulty of challenging the Inter in Serie A: “Inevitably I was born in the Paris region, in Colombes, and it is true that on this final we were at the castle with the teammates. Frankly being Parisians, we are very happy, also for France because a French team wins and I am very happy for them, I hope they will still win trophies. Our teammates have been very good, that is a positive point because we know that when they come back with us, they will still be very good because we need them. Their pressing shocked me. By being a player of Roma, we know a little Inter, we know that it is a very good team, and to have them at that way it is shocking. Put 5-0 at Inter is not nothing, being in Italy, I can tell you that it is complicated to put them 5-0. I think it's a very very good team from Paris Saint-Germain, they had a very big match and they have a great future. The Ballon d'Or? There are two very good players who are French who can have it today, there is one who plays Real Madrid, the other in Paris Saint-Germain, so I would vote for both».
And in the columns of West FranceDidier Deschamps' assistant Guy Stéphan also had a word for Désiré Doué, Ousmane Dembélé and more broadly PSG: “We gathered after dinner, we watched the match all together, the staff of the Blues and the sixteen players present. All in a good atmosphere, but also with a certain restraint. And above all, the unanimous observation of the superiority of Parisians. The collective power of PSG was too important, with individuals at the top level. The two teams ran roughly the same number of kilometers. But the Inter ran a lot after the ball and the Parisians showed, from the first to the last minute, that they were much superior on all levels: technical, tactical, physical … It is a reflection of everything they have been doing since the beginning of January. Congratulations to them». A Parisian coronation which, beyond the club, seems to have given a boost to all French football-a timely, at the dawn of important deadlines that the Blues hope to conclude with the same success.
