The 2025 Champions League final promises to entertain in a way that previous editions of European football’s annual showpiece often don’t.
Paris Saint-Germain and Inter are two high-octane teams fully deserving of their chance to lift the most iconic trophy that club football has to offer in Munich on Saturday night.
They each have enormous strengths that the other side will have to address and counter, which will become the key and likely defining battlegrounds on which the final will hinge.
Ultimately, only one can emerge victorious and be crowned European champions.
Wide areas are going to be key in deciding this final.
Both teams utilise full-backs and wing-backs enormously in their creative play, whether it be making decoy runs to create space for others or, or being the sharpest point of attack breaking the lines.
It could easily be a case of attack is the best form of defence, particularly down Inter’s right and PSG’s left, where Denzel Dumfries and Nuno Mendes will be up against each other.
Dumfries is a player in form, having a direct hand in five of the seven goals Inter scored across two legs against Barcelona in the semi-finals. He will be hoping to get forward and have more of the same impact again in the final, which could also serve to pin back Mendes. But if the PSG man gets the upper hand it could be opposite effect and work massively in PSG’s favour.
Those battle lines will also be drawn for Achraf Hakimi and Federico Dimarco on the opposite side.
Ousmane Dembele, although enjoying the best season of his career, is not a typical centre forward and will not engage with Inter’s centre-backs in a way that someone like Erling Haaland might.
They key is to track the Frenchman’s movement and stop him receiving the ball with space to shoot, typically less involved in general build-up than his teammates until the chance is there for the taking. He also won’t occupy the same space all night, likely to interchange with the others in PSG’s forward line, so understanding that and not getting confused by who’s picking up who is massive for Inter.
It won’t be 37-year-old Francesco Acerbi who takes responsibility for Dembele, but one of Yann Aurel Bisseck or Alessandro Bastoni certainly might dedicate themselves to limiting his impact.
Already, it would be a huge shock if Gianluigi Donnarumma doesn’t walk away with the Yashin Trophy and Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper title off the back of this season. The CIES Football Observatory already considers him the best in the world.
The Italian giant has proven his worth and then some for PSG during their European adventure so far, making numerous big saves in key moments across the knockout rounds. In the wake of the semi-final against Arsenal, one newspaper headline remarked that Bukayo Saka will be “haunted” by the saves that Donnarumma pulled off and what could have been for the Gunners.
Even if Inter manufacture the chances, they still have to beat Donnarumma if they want to earn a fourth Champions League crown.
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