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The Star
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Star
No days off
PARIS St Germain's ascent to the top of European football is complete. Staying there is another matter entirely. Their Champions League triumph confirmed what many observers had suspected for some time – that PSG's moment had finally come. Years of frustration in European club football's elite competition was blown away in one glorious and historic night in Munich. Not only did PSG end their long wait for the trophy they prized most of all but it produced a statement performance and set a new benchmark for what it is to win the Champions League title. The 5-0 rout of Inter Milan was officially the biggest winning margin of any final in the competition's 70-year history. PSG players celebrate after the final whistle. — AFP And it could have been so much more emphatic had Bradley Barcola been clinical in front of goal, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia taken more than just one of his chances or Desire Doue stayed on the field for longer than 67 minutes having scored two and set up another. Star striker Ousmane Dembele didn't even get a goal to his name. As impressive as PSG's victory was, it could have been even better. In other words, this is a team that is yet to reach their peak. With an average age of 24.8 years old, PSG's starting line-up was packed with youth, which was in stark contrast to an Inter team with an average age of over 30. At 31, captain Marquinhos was PSG's only starter over 30, while Doue was one of three teenagers to play, along with substitutes Senny Mayulu and Warren Zaire-Emery. 'We have a lot of young players – players who need to develop and I'm one of them,' Doue said. 'We are always going to strive to get better.' Keeping young teams together is easier said than done when Europe's biggest clubs come calling. A PSG supporter stands on a pole in front of the Eiffel Tower during the parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue. — AP That should not be a concern for Qatar-backed PSG, who are one of the richest clubs in the world and in recent years has focused on picking up the best young talent – from France in particular. It seems there is little danger of PSG settling for just one Champions League title. 'We are ambitious, we are going to continue to conquer the football world,' a triumphant Luis Enrique after winning the trophy for the second time as a coach, 10 years after leading Barcelona to the trophy. He sounds like a man who has his sights set on building a new era of dominance and quickly turned to adding to the treble of trophies already won this season. Next up is the newly expanded Club World Cup. Smoke rising as the Paris St Germain players celebrate on a bus during the victory parade in Paris. — Reuters 'I think it is an incredible competition. Maybe not now in its first edition, but it will become an incredibly important competition to win,' he said of the tournament that kicks off in the United States this month. 'We want to finish the season in style with the cherry on the cake.' PSG has entrusted the 55-year-old Spaniard to build a team in his image, rather than a selection of superstars and it has paid off. He has turned PSG into a Champions League winner while playing arguably the most exciting football in Europe, with Barcelona possibly the only team to rival them in the entertainment stakes. Yet while Barcelona were picked off by a wily Inter in the semi-finals, the Italians were blown away by PSG. Liverpool, who ran away with the Premier League title this season, were eliminated in the last 16, while Manchester City and Arsenal were beaten as well. French midfielder Senny Mayulu scoring the fifth goal past Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer. — AFP Luis Enrique's brand of football has simply been too good for the rest in Europe, who are now playing catch up. It is difficult to see where PSG need to add to a squad with so much depth, but their rise to the top has come on the back of spending billions on some of the world's best players. The era of Galactico signings is over for now, but the arrival of Kvaratskhelia from Napoli in January was evidence of president Nasser Al-Khelaifi's ongoing willingness to go big in the transfer market. The Georgian forward sparked a dramatic turnaround in PSG's form in Europe, which saw them go from near elimination at the league phase to Champions League winner. Inter coach Simone Inzaghi reacts over the referee's decision. — AP Manchester City might have thought their Champions League title in 2023 would spark a new era of success in Europe, but the opposite has been true and Pep Guardiola's team were eliminated in the playoffs this season. The Champions League is notoriously difficult to defend, with Real Madrid the only team to retain the trophy in the modern era, having won three in a row from 2016-18. The difficulty is largely due to the wide spread of talent among Europe's elite. PSG will come up against a Liverpool team that topped the league phase of this year's competition and are already making ambitious moves in the transfer market. PSG's Marquinhos is caught in a tangle with Inter's Lautaro Martinez at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, on May 31. — AP Real with a new coach in Xabi Alonso and signings such as Trent Alexander-Arnold should be a contender again. So too Barcelona after falling short in the semi-final. City, meanwhile, are undergoing a rebuild of their own. PSG, however, will likely start next season as the team to beat, with a bright young squad that finally knows how to get over the line. — AP
Qatar Tribune
01-06-2025
- Sport
- Qatar Tribune
PSG thrash Inter 5-0 to win Champions League final
MUNICH: Rampant Paris Saint-Germain won a first European Cup after outclassing Inter Milan 5-0 in the Champions League final thanks in part to Désiré Doué's double on Saturday. Morocco's Achraf Hakimi, at Inter 2020-2021, struck the opener on 12 minutes in Munich and France's Doué scored either side of the interval after the Qatar-backed French champions produced two lightning quick counter-attacks. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Senny Mayulu added the gloss for the biggest ever win in a European Cup final. Inter's Federico DiMarco had played Hakimi onside for the first and Doué's shot deflected in off the wing back for the second as the Parisians wrapped up an unprecedented French treble of Champions League, Ligue 1 and Coupe de France. PSG, who lost their only other final 1-0 to Bayern Munich in 2020, have undergone a change in emphasis under Luis Enrique with big names such as Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe replaced by solid performers and up-and-coming talents. Spaniard Enrique had previously won the title as coach with Barcelona in 2015 - also in Germany in Berlin. He joins an elite group of coaches to win the prize for two different clubs, including Carlo Ancelotti, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Jupp Heynckes, Ernst Happel, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho.
Qatar Tribune
01-06-2025
- Sport
- Qatar Tribune
PSG win first European Cup with record 5-0 thrashing of Inter Milan
DPA Munich Rampant Paris Saint-Germain won a first European Cup after outclassing Inter Milan 5-0 in the Champions League final thanks in part to Désiré Doué's double on Saturday. Morocco's Achraf Hakimi, at Inter 2020-2021, struck the opener on 12 minutes in Munich and France's Doué scored either side of the interval after the Qatar-backed French champions produced two lighting quick counter-attacks. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Senny Mayulu added the gloss for the biggest ever win in a European Cup final, with the margin of victory eclipsing Real Madrid's famous 7-3 success over Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960. 'I can't find the words. This is my biggest dream,' Doué said. 'We have written history.' Inter's Federico DiMarco had played Hakimi onside for the first and Doué's shot deflected in off the wing back for the second as the Parisians wrapped up an unprecedented French treble of Champions League, Ligue 1 and Coupe de France. PSG, who lost their only other final 1-0 to Bayern Munich in 2020, have undergone a change in emphasis under Luis Enrique with big names such as Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe replaced by solid performers and up-and-coming talents. The new strategy paid off as a jaded Inter, who beat Barcelona in a dramatic semi-final, lost out on more silverware having surrendered the Italian title to Napoli. Spaniard Enrique had previously won the title as coach with Barcelona in 2015 - also in Germany in Berlin. He joins an elite group of coaches to win the prize for two different clubs, including Carlo Ancelotti, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Jupp Heynckes, Ernst Happel, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho. Inter, who had lifted the famous trophy three times but not since 2010, are again licking their wounds having lost to Manchester City in the 2023 final. Clever interplay The Nerazzurri announced the death of former president Ernesto Pellegrini earlier on Saturday and wore black armbands at Munich's Allianz Arena in tribute. The starting line-ups were exactly as expected for the world's most watched annual sporting event, with Doué again preferred to France team-mate Bradley Barcola on the wing. US band Linkin Park entertained both sets of passionate fans before kick off and it was PSG who set the tempo early in the first competitive meeting between the sides. PSG, who needed a play-off to reach the knockout stages but beat Champions League table winners Liverpool in the last 16, also saw off English sides Aston Villa and Arsenal in the next two rounds of this season's revamped competition. Those wins prepared them for the physicality of the Italians, who finished fourth in the 36-strong league before edging Feyenoord, Bayern and Barcelona in epic style. Inter struggled to get into the game and it was little surprise when their former full back Hakimi tapped in after clever interplay involving Vitinha and man-of-the-match Doué. A break across the entire pitch then provided 19-year-old Doué with a shooting opportunity but his effort probably would not have beaten Sommer without the deflection off Dimarco. Inter were going to need the sort of remarkable comeback which defeated Barca but Francesco Acerbi, who scored a key late equalizer in that semi-final, nodded over a good first-half opportunity - as did Marcus Thuram. Inter coach Simone Inzaghi had looked furious during the first half but his team-talk at the break failed to make must difference. PSG kept on getting shots away and another swift counter allowed Doué, who has one France cap, to slot home on 63 minutes. Kvaratskhelia then grabbed a deserved goal 10 minutes later and substitute Mayulu got in on the act as Munich witnessed a masterclass. Vitinha hinted at PSG's change of strategy in recent years after their Qatari owners, who took over in 2011, abandoned their pursuit of the biggest stars and instead built a team. 'We are a very, very good team. A true team,' he told DAZN. 'It is a lot of effort, a lot work.'d Jose Mourinho.
Qatar Tribune
01-06-2025
- Sport
- Qatar Tribune
PSG are European Cup champions
Rampant Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) won a first European Cup after outclassing Inter Milan 5-0 in the Champions League final thanks in part to Désiré Doué's double on Saturday. Morocco's Achraf Hakimi, at Inter 2020-2021, struck the opener on 12 minutes in Munich and France's Doué scored either side of the interval after the Qatar-backed French champions produced two lightning quick counter-attacks. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Senny Mayulu added the gloss for the biggest ever win in a European Cup final. (DPA) page 12
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Kia Joorabchian has spent big in the off-season but will it pay off?
For more than a quarter of a millennium – 254 years, to precise – Tuesday's Craven meeting has been the moment when British Flat racing emerges from its long winter hibernation at the start of a new season. The first Classics are less than a month away and the Derby and Royal Ascot not too far behind. It is a time for optimism, anticipation and, for Newmarket in particular, a renewed sense of purpose, as the Suffolk town, where Charles II founded the first racing stable in the mid-17th century, prepares for the seven-month campaign on turf. It is much the same blend of hope and expectation that grips football fans. The pre-season is complete, the new signings – and perhaps a new manager, too – are bedding themselves in and it is time to find out how they all measure up to the competition. For one of racing's more recent arrivals in the top flight, there is the added pressure of needing to justify a huge off-season splurge in the market in an attempt to compete with the traditional heavyweights. There have been many statements of intent from Kia Joorabchian's Amo Racing since the high-profile football agent was first bitten by the racing bug in 2017, but nothing to match his outlay on bloodstock and property in the autumn and winter of 2024. Joorabchian took the Book 1 sale at Tattersalls in Newmarket, Europe's premier yearling sale, by storm last October, when he outspent even the Godolphin operation, which is backed by the sovereign wealth of its founder, Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, on the opening day. Amo's 25 purchases at the three-day auction – some of which were bought with associates including Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Nottingham Forest, and the Qatar-backed Al Shaqab operation – included a Frankel filly for 4.4m gns (£4.6m); a Wootton Bassett colt who set a record of 4.3m gns for a yearling colt sold at auction in Europe; and a sister to Alpinista, the 2022 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner, for 2.5m gns. Proven older horses were also recruited to run in Amo's increasingly familiar purple colours, including You Got To Me, last year's Irish Oaks winner, for 4.8m gns. She will be aimed towards the Coronation Cup at Epsom in June before eventually joining Amo's rapidly expanding band of broodmares. Perhaps Joorabchian's most eye-catching investment was in Freemason Lodge Stables in Newmarket where the now-retired Sir Michael Stoute trained for much of his outstanding career. Newmarket has had many high-spending new owners blow into town over the decades and plenty have blown out again after a few years of trying, and failing, to establish themselves among the elite. In the early years of Joorabchian's time in racing, there were many who felt that regular sackings of trainers and jockeys, sometimes apparently as the result of a single below-par performance, betrayed an impatience for success that did not bode well, for his blood pressure or his longer-term involvement. The purchase of Freemason Lodge, though, feels like the clearest sign yet that Joorabchian is now in it for the long haul. The chosen successor to Stoute, Henry Cecil and Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochfort at one of Newmarket's most historic stables, is Raphael Freire, who is just shy of his 30th birthday and likely to oversee an ever-expanding string of Amo-owned horses at the Bury Road yard. Freire is by no means the only trainer on Amo's roster. Ralph Beckett – who was sacked by Joorabchian as long ago as 2021 but subsequently reemployed – remains the trainer of You Got To Me and will also train the top lot from the Book 1 sale. George Scott, Charlie Johnston and Karl Burke are among several other leading yards with Amo-owned horses. But having taken charge the pressure will be on Freire, a former jockey from Brazil whose father and grandfather were trainers. His first significant runner from Freemason Lodge will be Benevento, who holds an entry in the 2,000 Guineas, in Wednesday's Craven Stakes. Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle is once again likely to be the stable to beat in the Flat's Group One showpiece events, alongside other traditional powerhouses including Godolphin, Juddmonte and Shadwell. Like Marinakis's football team, Amo is aiming to disrupt the established order at the top and it will be fascinating to chart the progress of their big-money signings as the season unfolds.
