Time stopped for a few seconds when Gabriel Magalhães sent his shot over the bar. Then Budapest exploded. On the pitch at the Puskás Aréna, the PSG players collapsed before getting up in the same movement, as if liberated after more than two hours of a stifling battle against Arsenal. Ousmane Dembélé sprinted towards the Parisian corner, Achraf Hakimi followed him with the cup in his arms, while the 17,000 red and blue supporters present in the Hungarian enclosure responded with a deafening roar. This time there was none of the feeling of superiority of Munich and the 5-0 inflicted on Inter a year earlier. There was deliverance. That of a group pushed to its limits, going through extra time then an unbreathable penalty shootout to finally write a little more the history of European football.
For many minutes, the players refused to leave their supporters. The communion was total. The chants drowned out the stadium announcements, the flags continued to fly despite the late hour and the evening’s heroes savored every second. Luis Enrique himself let himself be overcome by euphoria. The Spanish technician multiplied the hugs before having fun reproducing the famous celebration of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the finger placed on the veins of the arm, to the laughter of his players. A few moments later, the Asturian coach was carried in triumph by his group. A strong, almost symbolic image for the man who transformed PSG into a winning machine and who had just won a second consecutive Champions League.
New memories forever engraved
But the real party started away from the cameras. In the corridors of the stadium, smiles were everywhere. The players paraded in the mixed zone with ski masks on their heads, cans in their hands and medals around their necks. Hakimi filmed everything that moved. Dembélé continued the hugs. Nasser Al-Khelaïfi hugged Warren Zaire-Emery. Then an unexpected noise came to draw a few bursts of laughter from the journalists present. Outside, the PSG buses started honking rhythmically to the chants of Parisian supporters. A barely disguised message for the latecomers still busy responding to the media. “It’s time to go!” » seemed to shout the Parisian bus. Even the players present in the mixed zone laughed about it. A rare scene which alone spoke of the family atmosphere reigning in this team.
Shortly before midnight, the Parisian delegation finally left the Puskás Aréna to reach the Anantara hotel. There, far from view, the players continued the celebrations with their loved ones, their families and the members of the club. An intimate parenthesis before a new historic day. This Sunday, the European champions will return to Paris to commune with a whole red and blue people. A visit to the Champ-de-Mars in front of nearly 90,000 supporters is planned before a reception at the Élysée then a big party at the Parc des Princes. The Budapest night will then come to an end once and for all. But for PSG, the celebration of an already legendary feat will only just begin.
