Latest news with #Parisiens
Metro
01-06-2025
- Sport
- Metro
PSG can add Club World Cup to Champions League triumph
No Lionel Messi, no Kylian Mbappe and no Neymar but Paris Saint-Germain proved they are vastly better without their former superstars as they produced an historic Champions League performance in Munich. Luis Enrique's side, the youngest in the tournament, ruthlessly ripped apart the old men from Inter Milan as they registered a record 5-0 rout in the sensational final. Desire Doue is a rising star and the 19-year-old scored twice and unselfishly set up Achraf Hakimi for the early opener which set the tone for the one-sided final. Spaniard Luis Enrique became just the sixth manager to win the tournament with different clubs, having lifted the trophy with Barcelona in 2015, as PSG's long quest to win the coveted trophy after years of close calls and heartache came to a magnificent end. The young, energetic, hungry Ligue 1 champions beat Manchester City in the group stages and eliminated Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal in the knockout rounds and could easily retain the title as things stand. Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro's Football Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we'll send you so we can get football news tailored to you. So it is scary to ponder how good they can become if, or more likely when, club president Nasser al-Khelaifi and football adviser Luis Campos give the green light to sign the new recruits needed to make PSG even better. Surprisingly, the Parisiens aren't close to being favourites in the early markets for next season's Champions League with Premier League champions Liverpool heading the betting at 11/2 with bet365, who have Real Madrid priced at 13/2 and Arsenal at 7/1 along with the newly crowned champions. For the record, the same firm have Manchester City at 8/1 along with Barcelona while Bayern Munich are 9/1, Chelsea 16/1, Newcastle 20/1, Inter 22/1 and Tottenham 40/1. Before that, PSG play in the Fifa Club World Cup, kicking off their campaign in the United States against Atletico Madrid on June 15, and they are crying out to be backed at 13/2 with StarSports to add that to their trophy cabinet. Londoner Jack Draper, the British No.1 and world No.5, continues his entertaining foray into the French Open when he plays a fourth-round match against Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik with many pundits beginning to talk up his prospects of reaching the final. After defeating Brazil's dashing teenager Joao Fonseca in straight sets on Saturday, Draper should stride into the last eight. His opponent will be dangerous, however, as he dismissed handy Australian Alex de Minaur in the second round, gallantly fighting back after losing the first two sets to emerge triumphant in a thriller which ended 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. More Trending Draper, though, has the bit between his teeth and will take some stopping. He's 14/5 with Ladbrokes and Coral to win 3-1 and 16/1 with Bet Victor in their outright market. Buyer beware though, Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev stand in his way along a treacherous path to the final. • Cameron Norrie looks up against it when he meets Novak Djokovic in the fourth round at Roland Garros. The Serbian, who warmed up for the clay-court grand slam by winning the 100th tournament of his outstanding career at the Geneva Open, will be too strong for the Briton and is 10/11 with bet365 and Bet Victor to win in straight sets. MORE: Chelsea have advantage over Man Utd in race to sign £70m Premier League star MORE: PSG vs Tottenham: When is the UEFA Super Cup 2025 and where will it be held? MORE: Arsenal and Man Utd boost in Viktor Gyokeres race as contenders withdraw
Daily Mirror
28-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
French Open stars beg to postpone matches as tennis chiefs given fresh headache
The third round of the men's singles at the French Open is set to clash with Paris Saint-Germain's crucial Champions League final against Inter Milan on Saturday night French Open organisers will be forced to deal with an unwanted clash of sporting schedules on Saturday, with the Champions League final causing problems on and off the court. Paris Saint-Germain take on Inter Milan in European football's biggest club match in Munich – and the game is sure to disrupt events in the French capital. PSG are aiming to lift the Champions League trophy for the first time on Saturday night and their pursuit of glory has caused some conflicts for players. Les Parisiens are followed by a handful of the players competing at Roland Garros, including Arthur Fils, who is from a suburb of Paris. Fils plays Jaume Munar in the second round of the French Open on Thursday, knowing that victory could bring him a painful schedule clash with his beloved PSG on Saturday night. 'I plan to go to the match,' Fils joked when asked about the potential issue. 'No, it's a huge final. I'll watch it from my room. I don't want to waste energy on it, but I'll be fully invested.' He then joked: 'Let me play my match on Thursday then I'll go and have a word with Amelie," referring to the tournament director Amelie Mauresmo. Joking aside, it is an issue for Mauresmo to consider, with attendances for Saturday evening's third-round matches potentially taking a hit, with thousands of Parisiens instead choosing to watch PSG vs Inter in the city's bars. PSG star Ousmane Dembele was at the French Open drawer ceremony, while his team-mates Achraf Fakimi, Nuno Mendes, Desire Doue and Joao Neves attended Roland Garros on Monday to watch Carlos Alcaraz's first-round match. Dembele is a friend of fellow Frenchman Ugo Humbert, who plays Britain's Jacob Fearnley in the second round on Thursday and is hoping for a morning match on Saturday if he gets through. 'More like the start of the day,' he smiled when asked about the clash. 'While we're recovering – 11 a.m. is very good!" Gael Monfils will play British No.1 Jack Draper on Thursday for a place in the third round, but even if he loses there is another potential problem, with his wife Elina Svitolina also in the competition. 'For the moment, I don't have a ticket (for the final in Munich),' he said. 'But you have to remember that I have my wife. Getting a ticket isn't a problem, [but] we'll also have to see if I can go.' Defending champion Alcaraz may be a Real Madrid fan, but he's backing PSG on Saturday night. "Of course I will watch it,' he said. "I watch football, I watch him [Dembele] a lot as a huge fan of La Liga, and when you were playing in Barcelona you made some trouble and some pain for us [Real Madrid]. "Yeah, I'm going to watch the final. And, honestly, I've told everyone that I'm supporting PSG this time." Jannik Sinner said: 'As an Italian, I say that it would be nice to see an Italian team win. [PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi] Donnarumma is also here. We've been good friends for a long time, we know each other well and for me it was an honour to see him in my box.'
Metro
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Metro
Mikel Arteta reveals what PSG coaches told him after Arsenal defeat
Mikel Arteta revealed that Paris Saint-Germain's coaches told him that Arsenal played better than them despite the Parisiens advancing to the Champions League final. Trailing 1-0 after the first leg at the Emirates, Arsenal started brightly but saw early chances denied by the superb Gianluigi Donnarumma. And PSG took advantage, scoring either side of half time through Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi to put Luis Enrique's side. Arsneal continued to battle away – and pulled one goal back through Bukayo Saka – but the Gunners fell short of their first Champions League final since 2006. The result was a bitter pill to swallow for Arteta, who believed that his side had been the better team for large periods of the clash at the Parc des Princes. Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro's Football Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we'll send you so we can get football news tailored to you. And the Spaniard revealed that even those in the PSG dugout felt the same at full-time. 'First congratulations to PSG for reaching the final,' he told TNT Sports. 'The assessment I will make when I am a little cooler but the feedback I got straight away from their bench is that we were much better than them More Trending 'When you look at the two games their best player on the pitch has been the goalkeeper, he has been the difference for them in the tie. We were very close, much closer than the result showed but unfortunately we are out. I am very proud of the players. 'After 20 minutes it should have been 3-0. There is something extra you need to go your way in the competition and it didn't. We were very close and for long periods of both games we were much better than them but we are not there and that has to hurt.' More to follow.. For more stories like this, check our sport page. Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. MORE: Martin Keown says Arsenal star 'won't sleep' after PSG defeat in Champions League MORE: Rio Ferdinand in hospital and misses huge PSG vs Arsenal clash MORE: Liverpool hero Mohamed Salah names the 'best team in the Champions League'
The Guardian
17-04-2025
- The Guardian
‘They act with total impunity': Paris city hall declares war on graffiti vandals
In Paris's central Place de la République, the magnificent lions at the feet of the statue of Marianne are once again covered in graffiti. Along the nearby Boulevard Saint-Martin – part of the Grands Boulevards that bisect the north of the city – the trunk of every plane tree has been crudely sprayed with a name. The front of majestic stone apartment buildings, some dating back more than 200 years, are similarly 'tagged' with stylised initials or names. So are the benches, flower boxes, front doors, post boxes and the plinth under the bust of the half British 19th-century playwright Baron Taylor. In fact, anything that does not move has been tagged. Now Paris city hall has declared war on the vandals and promised to track them down, prosecute and seek fines for some of the estimated €6m (£5.1m) of damage they cause every year. The latest anti-tag campaign is being waged by Ariel Weil, the mayor of France's central district covering the first to fourth arrondissements on the right bank of the Seine. Weil is particularly infuriated by the repeated vandalism to the Marianne, the female symbol of the nation and a listed historic monument. 'I've asked police to use cameras and I will take legal action each time and work out the cost to the city in each case,' Weil told Le Parisien. 'Everyone needs to work together: city hall, the police and the courts. People have to know that damaging a public building is not nothing.' François Louis, the president of an association of Parisiens who use city hall's official DansMaRue app to signal damage, dumping and antisocial behaviour in public spaces, says he has heard it all before. He said a core group of about 50 'serial taggers' were responsible for half the of tags across the city and had been operating with impunity for decades. 'Some of these serial taggers are arrested, released and are back tagging again the next day. Some take pictures or film themselves and post on social media. They act with total impunity,' Louis said. 'We need to catch those who do it time and time again. It shouldn't be beyond the capability of the national police to investigate, in fact it's disconcertingly easy. They should be taking images from CCTV, matching it to phone mast records and tracing these serial taggers.' He added: 'Can you image if Notre Dame was tagged? When the Gilets Jaunes tagged the Arc de Triomphe it was headline news so why are we letting these people vandalise the historic monument at Place de la République? Paris police prefecture says the number of tagging cases it has handled increased by 51% in the last two years from 317 to 479. Those taken to court and convicted can face up to two years in prison and fines of up to €30,000 for the most serious damage. Despite repeated threats of clampdowns, there has been only one prosecution in three years. In 2022, a Paris court sentenced a man known as Six Sax to two months in prison and gave him a €17,000 fine. City hall says the cost of repairing the damage falls not only to the public authorities but also to private property owners if the graffiti on a building is above the first floor. Officials also worry that the chemicals used are causing permanent damage to the stone of monuments and buildings and the trees. Emmanuel Grégoire, a former deputy mayor of Paris who hopes to be elected as city mayor next year, said the authority had been compiling files on the worst serial taggers with a view to producing evidence for any eventual court cases. 'These investigators take photographs and look at social networks and AI to identify the signatures,' he said. 'Many of the taggers are not anonymous but operate under their own names with a sense of impunity.' Sitting in a cafe just off Place de la République, Grégoire pointed to tags all along the facade of a building opposite. 'They've gone along from balcony to balcony tagging the wall. It's a real problem all over Paris but this is one of the worst hit areas.' Louis said the ubiquitous tags are a stain on the city's magnificent Hausmannian avenues of the Grands Boulevards. 'They're like dogs pissing against a wall to mark their territory,' he said. 'It gives a very poor impression. People who have a certain image of the city in their mind arrive here and see whole districts trashed by tagging.'
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Aston Villa 3-2 PSG (agg. 4-5): Parisiens avoid humbling remontada and scrape through to Champions League semis
PLAYER RATINGS | Aston Villa 3-2 PSG (agg. 4-5): Parisiens avoid humbling remontada and scrape through to Champions League semis UEFA Champions League, Quarter-final, 15/04/25 Paris Saint-Germain scraped through to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, despite a 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa as Unai Emery almost avenged Luis Enrique's 2017 remontada and overturned what at one point was a four-goal deficit (3-2, agg. 4-5). The Match It was a frantic start as Aston Villa looked to halve the deficit. Amadou Onana went close within the opening seconds with a well-saved flicked header as the home side looked to surf off the energy of the crowd. But PSG weathered the bried storm and silenced Villa Park. Nuno Mendes played Bradley Barcola down the left. His cross did not find Ousmane Dembélé but did Emiliano Martinez, however, the Argentine could not gather, instead parrying into the path of Achraf Hakimi, who provided the finish. Advertisement Aston Villa had their chances: Marcus Rashford had two sights of goal but was cut out by Marquinhos on both occasions, whilst Morgan Rogers curled just wide. However, the next goal would also come courtesy of Les Parisiens. It was another full-back on the scoresheet as Dembélé found Nuno Mendes in the box after a lightning counter. The Portugal international's effort clipped off the inside of the post on its way in. 'We are ready to suffer,' said Luis Enrique pre-match but PSG looked like winning this one at a canter and booking their place in the semi-finals for a second consecutive year. However, Youri Tielemans' deflected effort just before the half-hour mark sparked the revolt. There was another barrage at the start of the second-half as Aston Villa entered now-or-never territory. PSG simply sat off John McGinn, allowing him to work his way into a shooting position and unleashing an effort from the edge of the box that left Donnarumma rooted to the spot. Two minutes later, Ezri Konsa gave Villa the lead on the night after some good work from Rashford, who had a muted first-half, burst into life. Advertisement Donnarumma then kept Les Parisiens' aggregate lead intact with a big save from Tielemans. Against the club that he is under contract, Marco Asensio was the next to almost level the tie but he was denied by Donnarumma after being put in one-on-one before Konsa then fluffed his free header from close-range, barely making any contact with Rashford's curled free-kick. But thereafter, the chances dried up. PSG sat deeper and deeper and Aston Villa struggled to break through. Instead, the best chances fell to PSG but Martínez was equal to efforts from Dembélé, Hakimi and then Doué. Ian Maatsen had the final chance to take the game to extra time, however, Pacho, who himself had a rare off night, made the crucial block. PSG did not convince but they did progress. The essential was assured and the remontada avoided. Aston Villa player ratings Emiliano Martínez – 6 At fault for PSG's first goal, parrying to Hakimi instead of collecting the ball, he redeemed himself in the second half, making a string of saves from PSG's forwards with the game at 3-2. They were saves that you would have expected him to make, however, they did allow Villa to keep the chance of an upset alive. Advertisement Lucas Digne – 6 Pau Torres – 7 Exposed by PSG's quick transitions with the visitors working numerical advantages on several occasions, he put in a strong and commanding performance at the centre of defence and his long-range distribution was invaluable and, at times, split open the PSG defence. Ezri Konsa – 7 Matty Cash – 4 Youri Tielemans – 8 Boubacar Kamara – 6 Amadou Onana – 5 John McGinn – 7 Morgan Rogers – 7 Marcus Rashford – 6 The Englishman was a phantom in the first half, losing his duels against Marquinos. By half-time, the crowd were on his back but he responded in the second, making dangerous runs in behind, wriggling to the byline to cut back for Konsa for Villa's third and also putting the ball on a plate for Konsa to level the tie on aggregate. PSG player ratings Gianluigi Donnarumma – 8 Once again, the Italian was called upon and once again he delivered. There was little that he could have done on the three goals but he made big saves from Rashford, Tielemans and then Asensio to keep PSG's slender lead on aggregate intact. Advertisement Nuno Mendes – 6 Willian Pacho – 4 Marquinhos – 6 Achraf Hakimi – 6 Vitinha – 6 João Neves – 4 Fabián Ruiz – 6 Khivcha Kvaratskhelia – 3 Undoubtedly the Georgian's worst appearance since joining PSG. He was stiffled by the Villa defence and was imprecise with his end product when he did get on the ball. Ousmane Dembélé – 4 This was more like the Dembélé of years gone by. He did well to spot and tee up Mendes for PSG's second but thereafter was very wasteful, spurning a couple of chances and proving less incisive than he has previously been. Bradley Barcola – 5 GFFN | Luke Entwistle – reporting from Villa Park
