French Open bosses forced to beef up security with police all around Roland Garros ahead of Champions League final
FRENCH OPEN bosses have beefed up security around the tennis premises ahead of a possible Champions League win by Paris Saint-Germain.
Close to Roland Garros is the Parc des Princes – home of the French champions – and a watch party will take place there tonight for fans to see on TV the final clash in Munich against Inter Milan.
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PSG fans started gathering around the Parc des Princes hours before the Champions League final against Inter in Milan
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Tennis chiefs are being extra cautious in the French capital
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Yet at the same time, Novak Djokovic – a three-time Roland Garros winner – will play the evening match against Austrian qualifier Filip Misolic on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said: 'The fact that there's the Champions League final won't change much for us anyway.
'We are very happy for PSG. We're trying to do our job organising this tournament.
'Fifteen thousand people will come over here to watch tennis. We'll try to give them the best possible match.
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'All around Roland Garros there will be police department teams that will be rolled out. Also safety arrangements will be set-up.
"Outside the police department and prefecture have done everything, scheduled everything. They're used to that kind of event.'
Defending champion
World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka demolished Serbian Olga Danilovic 6-2 6-3 in round three.
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French football fans are creating an incredible atmosphere in Paris
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Meanwhile, Bayern's Allianz Arena is being renamed for the final.
Their famous venue will be called the "Munich Football Arena".
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This is because Uefa regulations state the home club must provide a "clean stadium" for fixtures.
This means there must be no branding or sponsor in the name of the stadium during the Uefa competitions.
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Irish Times
31 minutes ago
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PSG's costly failures entertained Europe for years, but now they could be on the brink of an era of domination
Seventy years ago, the French sports newspaper L'Équipe created the European Cup . Their motivation was to generate content that would help them sell more papers in midweek, but they also no doubt expected French football would take its fair share of ' la gloire'. Instead, after France gave the Cup to Europe, Europe wouldn't let them have it back. Only one French team ever brought the title home, and that was Marseille's tainted vintage of 1993. As L'Équipe's correspondent Vincent Duluc lamented on the morning of Saturday's final, 'We invented the Cup – for others to win.' Not any more. On a sultry Saturday night in Munich, Luis Enrique's brilliant Paris Saint-Germain crushed Inter Milan 5-0 in the most one-sided final in the history of the competition. Nobody has ever nailed a European Cup final performance quite like this . A brutal night for Inter ended on the stroke of 90 minutes, as the referee ignored the usual minimum injury time to blow the whistle and put an end to their suffering. READ MORE As PSG's captain Marquinhos lifted the Cup, Enrique turned and applauded the Inter players who had stood waiting to watch the trophy lift. A gracious gesture from the victorious coach to the men his side had just put through hell. This match was always going to turn on whether PSG, under the pressure of a final their fans and Qatari bosses expected them to win, could reproduce the free and flowing football that had destroyed Manchester City , Liverpool , Aston Villa and Arsenal on the way to Munich. The Premier League teams had all discovered that pressing PSG's midfield was like punching air. Disoriented and intimidated, they ended up retreating into a defensive shell. Simone Inzaghi decided Inter would dispense with the preliminaries and start the game already in the defensive shell. Carefully, the Inter coach laid out his fortifications. Inter wouldn't press Vitinha, instead sitting off and marking the men PSG's playmaker might pass to. Paris Saint-Germain's Vitinha and Joao Neves celebrate in front of supporters on Saturday night in Munich. Photograph: Franck Fife/Getty The apparent hope was that Vitinha, in the biggest game of his life, would freeze in the spotlight. Inter's whole plan really depended on this – that PSG would seize up, that the occasion and expectation would unnerve them, that the experience of Inter, whose starting XI was five years older on average than PSG's, would make the difference in the end. Instead, right from the start it was Inter who looked afraid. Their play was strewn with underhit passes, a telltale sign of a team that's nervous and trying to be too careful. Vitinha, allowed space to strut and swagger, transmitted calm, unhurried confidence to his team-mates. 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Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/Getty So often scoring a goal can look like the hardest thing in the world, but in this moment PSG didn't just make scoring look easy, they made it look natural, logical, inevitable. The elegant simplicity of the move looked effortless, a demonstration of clear superiority, and the chilling effect on Inter was plain (as flies to wanton boys are we to PSG…). But even a scarily brilliant goal is still just one goal. Inter still had their game plan, and a big part of that game plan was set pieces. Like Arsenal in the semi-final, they had signalled as much by flinging some early long throws into the box. On 20 minutes, Nicolò Barella tried to shepherd a loose ball over the goal line for what he expected to be a valuable corner kick. Willian Pacho surprised him, nicking the ball away to Kvaratskhelia, and though the play was still 100 metres from Inter's goal everyone could see immediately that they were in deep trouble. 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Irish Times
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- Irish Times
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Irish Independent
4 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Boy (17) stabbed to death, man killed in scooter crash and over 550 arrests in France following PSG Champions League win
©UK Independent Today at 21:30 Two people died and more than 500 were arrested after disorder broke out during Champions League final celebrations following Paris Saint-Germain's win, the French interior ministry has said. Wild celebrations erupted across the French capital and beyond after PSG crushed Italian opponents Inter Milan 5-0 to win the Champions League for the first time on Saturday night.
