This Saturday evening, Paris Saint-Germain was looking for a second consecutive Champions League victory. Against Arsenal, at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest (Hungary), the start of the match proved disastrous for the French club.
From the sixth minute of play, the Gunners opened the scoring. Kai Havertz struck hard with his left foot at the near post to beat the helpless Matveï Safonov. The start of the action, however, seemed to be marred by a handball from Leandro Trossard, turning into a real decisive pass.
Luis Enrique’s men would then literally confiscate the ball from their opponents, who chose to “take the bus”. Very quickly in this meeting, Martin Ødegaard was playing for time. Shortly before half-time, Fabián Ruiz narrowly missed the equalizer by not aiming his header (43rd). After seven minutes of added time, the Rouge et Bleu returned to the locker room, trailing on the scoreboard.
PSG misses several match points
The start of the second period started just as laboriously for PSG. And this, until the hour mark, when Cristhian Mosquera illegally tackled Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the penalty area. The referee pointed to the penalty spot, a decision confirmed by VAR. Vitinha left it to Ousmane Dembélé to transform the sentence. The 2025 Ballon d’Or took care of it perfectly, taking David Raya on the wrong foot (1-1, 65th).
The reigning European champions pushed to double the lead. On a counter, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia escaped and fired a powerful left-footed shot, which crashed into the post (77th). Bradley Barcola was also very close, but pushed his ball a little too much (86th). As for Vitinha, his curling shot from the right went just over the bar of the English team (90th). In the final seconds of added time, Barcola again missed the KO goal (90th + 6). The two teams therefore had to decide by an extension.
Following a borderline intervention by Nuno Mendes on Noni Madueke, the Arsenal players demanded a penalty (102nd). Daniel Siebert did not flinch. PSG pushed again during this extra time but failed to find the fault against the Gunners cowering in defense.
Then it was time for the penalty shootout, during which Eberechi Eze and Nuno Mendes missed their attempt. Just like Gabriel, which allowed the Rouge et Bleu to retain their title of European champion.
