No galactico glitter, no egos, PSG are just one captivating team

Times

2 days ago

'The end of the glitter,' was how Paris St Germain president Nasser Al-Kheleaifi described his club's change of direction. Yet as cannons fired confetti into the Bavarian night sky, PSG were very much this season's glitter band.
The best team in Europe by word of mouth and now by deed, the most emphatic champions in the history of this competition — no one has ever won the final by a five goal margin — and the most captivating watch, too. PSG blew Inter Milan away in Munich in way others could not. Barcelona and Bayern Munich had tried, and failed. Yet PSG had this match as good as won inside 20 minutes, their passing, their press, their finishing confirming their transformation as a club and a group under coach Luis Enrique. Of course, Inter were chasing a final so there were moments, yet the Serie A table reveals Simone Inzaghi's side have not even been Italy's best this season, let alone the continent's superiors. That title belongs to PSG who have at last secured the prize the Qatari owners came for in 2011, even if this was never considered the likeliest path to the summit.
All that galactico glitter wasn't gold for PSG, not on this stage. Too much got in the way. Egos, mostly. Teams assembled by metrics involving star quality or fame never seem to work. On paper Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi appear unbeatable and, sat at a console, they probably would be. Yet, incredibly, it is only in their absence that PSG have made their leap forward. They play hard — most shots, most dribbles, most chances created in the competition this season – but work hard, too. No team covers greater distance than Paris.
It helps that they are the youngest European champions since Louis Van Gaal's Ajax 30 years ago. This is a selfless group. Nobody has to do a team-mate's running. On occasions a fabulous recovery is revealed to have come from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, arguably the most exciting forward in Europe, who has streaked back to deny a counterattack. On another, the scorer of a tap-in, the player highest up the field is Achraf Hakimi, a full back. It is an incredibly fluid, ambitious way of playing.
We should have seen it coming. No Premier League team caused Liverpool as much trouble as PSG did in their first-leg meeting, despite the fact the French club lost. That result did them an incredible disservice and Virgil Van Dijk, Liverpool's captain, admitted as much. He called PSG the best team he had faced in three years — a time period that took in Manchester City's treble winners.
PSG are France's first winners in the modern Champions League era, although some might argue they are France's first, period. Marseille, European champions in 1992-93, were tainted by a match fixing scandal, rigging a game against Valenciennes six days prior to the final, in which they clinched the French domestic title. Bernard Tapie, the president, decided so make the build up as easy as possible by ensuring the opposition posed no threat. Marseille were stripped of the French title but, remarkably, not the European one because the corrupted game was not a Uefa fixture. It later emerged that between 1989 and 1993 Marseille retained a budget of roughly £640,000 for the purchase of football matches, so who knows what else was crooked? Still, their name stays on the cup. Not even an asterisk.
So, as much as some will resent another trophy going to a club backed by a nation state — and domestically PSG do not have the pressures Marseille dealt with, such is their relative wealth and strength — it is not like there was a golden age of football ownership that has now been besmirched.
PSG won this trophy, and this final, fair and square by being the much, much better team. The better-resourced team, too, it is true. In the glitter days, they bought several players who, alone cost more than Inter's entire starting line-up. Yet the best Italian clubs could do that in times past and often didn't play the most entertaining football in Europe given the chance. PSG do. This is about more than just the money. Given their youth and the way they have realised potential, this PSG are what Chelsea aspire to be. Desire Doue became only the third teenager to score in a Champions League final, and the first for 21 years. The fourth came along soon after when Senny Mayulu — a 19-year-old product of Paris' north-eastern suburbs — scored PSG's fifth.
In Doué , France have a talent for the ages
REUTERS
What a player Doué is. To think there was some debate before the game over whether Enrique would start him or Bradley Barcola. They are both fine players but, in Doué , France have a talent for the ages, one in the potential class of Mbappé. The greatest players perform on the biggest stages and with two goals and one assist it was indisputably his night. Just like Mbappé at this age he has the maturity to balance that teenage absence of fear. He could have chosen to shoot for PSG's first but instead squared a pass to Hakimi, who simply could not miss. Then, when he had no better options twice in the game, he chose to go it alone. If there was a single disappointment it was that, soon after, he did make way for Barcola. There really should be a rule against taking off a teenager going for a hat-trick in a Champions League final.
Ultimately, Inter were dismantled. A neutral might argue that PSG wanted it more – the way Tottenham Hotspur wanted their final more than Manchester United, it was said – but early goals do that. Inter had barely had a kick when PSG scored and once the second went in half the ground looked entirely deflated. Going into this match, Inter had only trailed for 16 minutes in the entire competition.
To be short by two so soon was dispiriting, particularly as PSG were as superior out of possession as they were in it. Red flares burned in the PSG end, shrouding the pitch in smoke, but only one side looked lost. This was the biggest victory at this stage of the tournament in history, surpassing a handful of 4-0 margins and Real Madrid's epic 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt at Hampden Park in 1960. PSG were more than ten years from even existing then. It is easy to forget how young this club, let alone this team, is. Last night, though, as glitter fell on their youthful shoulders, they looked very much the future.