Paris Saint-Germain make history as Qatar rule Europe again, but only after Arsenal make them go the distance. And yet that final step still eludes Mikel Arteta. Arsenal still don’t have that Champions League. A gruelling battle of a final went to the very last kick of the season, as Gabriel missed the decisive 10th penalty of the shootout.
Perhaps that was the only way Arsenal’s otherwise celebratory season could conclude: with the ultimate in set-pieces.
This time, though, one of their great protagonists of such moments had to endure the pain. While it almost feels unfair to criticise any player in the most pressurised situation they can face, the great regret for Arsenal might be that two penalties were off target against a goalkeeper, in Matvey Safonov, who didn’t even get close to any of them.
It illustrates the emotional capriciousness of football in that sense, especially at moments of such heightened stakes. Arsenal probably do more analytical work than any team in the world, seeking to calculatedly game every situation, and two of the season’s best performers don’t get the simplest set-piece of all on target.
Of course, it’s not actually that simple, given the context; much like facing PSG as a whole.
There’s too much emotion clouding everything, and this Champions League final defeat now adds a layer of emotional complication to a season that still saw them win the league for the first time in 22 years.
The English champions could not become the European champions, as a Qatari sportswashing project rules the continent again.
How Arsenal would love that European Cup, the one remaining gap in their record. Arteta can’t allow this to haunt them though, as they need to use it as fuel.
A second Champions League final in the club’s history ended in defeat, as PSG instead won their second in a row – becoming the first to retain it since Real Madrid in 2018, and just the eighth side in the competition’s 71-year history.
That feat speaks to their historic quality as a side, despite the reservations about the ownership, even if they didn’t really show it here.
It was a strange game – no doubt suffocated by the stakes – where PSG never really played that well but had the better chances, and Arsenal defended superbly while looking dangerous, without ever creating anything.
The great frustration will nevertheless be that Arsenal had the lead through Kai Havertz’s supreme sixth-minute goal and then kept an excellent team largely at arm’s length. No one else has done that in a full Champions League knockout tie for two years. They’ve been that good.
For an hour, it was an almost perfect defensive performance. Luis Enrique’s side didn’t really know what to do.
But the problem with facing a player like Kvicha Kvaratshkelia is that he only really needs to do something once.
After 65 minutes where Cristhian Mosquera marshalled him superbly, the Georgian finally got in and forced the foul. Ousmane Dembele naturally scored from the spot.
It was at that point that a proper football match arose, rather than a tactical battle of wits. And if there was one actual criticism for Arsenal in a game that did that ultimately go down to the finest margins, it was that they could have built on that lead more; they could have tested Safonov more. There was a nervousness about PSG’s backline.
It’s still easier said than done against a team this good.
Many will say Arsenal rightly paid for a defensive and pragmatic approach that shouldn’t have ultimately been enough in a match that is the great showcase of what the club game is supposed to be; that it would have been the wrong lesson for the sport.
Arteta could do with more attacking quality, in talent and in his own current vision. Admirably as all of the players fought, should an attack of Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli really be enough to win a Champions League final? Was that really sufficient quality for a feat as emphatic as this double?
You can see why they absolutely want a higher-level left forward and maybe another attacker.
Instead, Arsenal willingly brought the game down to its margins, and ultimately got caught. The gameplan worked, but not quite enough.
Any talk about fights for the soul of football should be suppressed, mind. People don’t tend to like such discussions in the moment of victory, but it remains staggering that Qatar effectively win Europe again.
Should it really be possible that an autocratic state can just spend so much they can rise to the top of the game like this? That they can make European football their own?
Another frustration for Arsenal is nevertheless that, after the game’s first period – which felt a long time ago by the moment of Gabriel’s missed kick – PSG didn’t look that intimidating.
Kvaratshkelia and Dembele went off and they just didn’t have that much. They again have the trophy, though.
Enrique has now won three, to put him up there with Pep Guardiola, Zinedine Zidane and Bob Paisley, and only behind Carlo Ancelotti.
Arteta and Arsenal really made him work for it here, more than they’ve had to in any other European tie. When it comes to effort, Arsenal put everything in. But they have that little bit more to do.
It’s still a great season, even if lost finals inevitably give it a different feel. You realise in the moment it isn’t actually a “free hit”, despite the Premier League title. It’s something that has a lot of emotional cost.
Arteta just needs to use that. PSG meanwhile needed to use all their power. Qatar again has the European Cup.
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