Arsenal v PSG is a battle of contrasts, with a much deeper significance
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL : Comment: Stellar attack against collective structure, imagination against order, and a meeting of the two best teams in Europe. But an enticing final would not hide darker discussions if PSG became the first state-owned club to defend the Champions League, writes Miguel Delaney
Arsenal , if you listen to some at the club, may now have their chance at “revenge”. They felt they were actually better than Paris Saint-Germain in last season’s semi-final, which may still baffle many people who’ve watched the Qatari project since. The rest of Europe might just want a better crescendo than the semi-final ultimately offered, and perhaps that the Champions League final has been due for some time.
There hasn’t been a great final in years, arguably since 2005, despite claims from 2008, 2012 and 2017. That has meant the semi-finals have often represented the absolute peak of club football, even if this year’s didn’t reach the heights that had been anticipated. There were joyous celebrations as Arsenal reached their first Champions League final since 2006 (Getty) It’s not an exaggeration to say that the expectation after the Bayern Munich-PSG first leg was that we would all be sitting here on Thursday morning trying to make sense of another sensation.
That didn’t really happen. PSG were just too good . This time, Bayern just couldn’t get close enough when it mattered.
That poses another question, relevant to Arsenal’s lingering frustration from last season, relevant to where European football goes next. If PSG put in a very modern display of excellence in the first leg, the second leg was a more classically continental display. They shut Bayern out, where they had previously opened them.
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