BUDAPEST (AP) — Winning the Champions League was so amazing for Paris Saint-Germain that they had to do it twice.
PSG sealed European club supremacy for the second year in a row by beating Arsenal 4-3 on penalties on Saturday after a 1-1 draw through extra time in a dramatic final in Budapest.
“It’s unbelievable: two titles in succession. From the first day of this season, the coach said that winning is hard, and winning twice is even more difficult,” said Marquinhos, the PSG captain and Brazilian defender. “So we all had to get back to work. That was the mindset.”
Gabriel Magalhaes, Arsenal’s Brazilian center-back, sent his team’s final penalty over the crossbar, handing PSG, led by Spanish coach Luis Enrique, the victory in the shootout.
The teams were level 1-1 at the end of regulation and extra time, taking the match to penalties at the Puskas Arena.
The French giant is only the second club to retain the trophy in the modern era, after Real Madrid, the historic king of Europe.
Luis Enrique became a three-time champion as a coach. He has molded a side that is simply too good even for the continent’s best. That includes Arsenal, who celebrated the Premier League crown the week before and had led the Champions League group stage with a perfect record, finishing 10 points and 10 places ahead of PSG.
That mattered little at the Puskas Arena, where the Parisians reaffirmed their status as a dominant force in European football.
“It’s even more special because we knew, before the match, how hard it would be,” Luis Enrique said. “I think it’s deserved across the whole season, even though the final was highly contested.”
After crushing Inter Milan 5-0 in last year’s final, PSG faced a tougher foe. Arsenal, with the best defense in the Champions League, sat back and defended deeply.
PSG dominated possession but created little after falling behind to Kai Havertz’s goal in the sixth minute. A penalty from Ousmane Dembele in the 65th minute would have leveled the score and sent the final to extra time for the first time in 10 years.
By securing the two titles, Luis Enrique joined a select group of coaches to win at least three European Cups—an achievement shared with Pep Guardiola, who failed to do so with Barcelona and Manchester City; also alongside Carlo Ancelotti, Guardiola, Bob Paisley and Zinedine Zidane, all of whom have three European Cups as coaches.
The next target will be to match Real Madrid’s three-peat under Zidane from 2016 to 2018. With a starting XI in Budapest averaging under 24 years old, Luis Enrique has a squad with potential to rule for years to come.
But a stubborn and resolved Arsenal pushed them to the limit until the end.
Eberechi Eze also had missed a penalty earlier for Arsenal, but goalkeeper David Raya saved Nuno Mendes’s effort, allowing the Premier League champions to level the score.
Brazilian defender Lucas Beraldo netted PSG’s final spot kick, meaning Gabriel had to convert his for the shootout to go to sudden death. But the Brazilian fired high, over the crossbar, sparking elation among PSG players and fans in attendance.
