Champions League Final 2026 | Sat 30th May | Paris Saint-Germain v Arsenal

[roy.or.r]

They're not exactly in the toughest league in the world though are they? I'm not belittling the achievements but PSG are at the level we'd expect them to be at. One of the best teams ever? Sorry, no chance. Arsenal are not exactly world class opponents either, only made the final because they had the easiest route ever.

Inter weren’t world class opponents either when we won the treble.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

I agree, how anyone thought they controlled that game is beyond me and they're still banging on about the Madueke penalty appeal!

How come no one's talking about why the arse right back didn't get a yellow for the foul for PSG's penalty? It would've be a second yellow too...and how many times did Saka handle the ball in his own area, just the twice was it, but no mention about that either.

The bias in favour of them, today and all season, was a joke!

If only PGMOL had given ONE penalty against them, Raya might have had some practice…

 

[PeterBarnesShorts]

Bridgeno1 seems a decent guy for a Tarquin but I wish he would just fuk off out of our City forum

I think he has now,…for some reason.

 

[coolcity]

Inter weren’t world class opponents either when we won the treble.

Totally agree, I'm just saying I don't think this PSG team is one of the best ever. Very good team yes.

 

[RobH]

Can’t help but think that both leagues were ours to lose. Even this seasons squad, at their best, could have defeated PSG.

 

[coolcity]

If only PGMOL had given ONE penalty against them, Raya might have had some practice…

Funny you should say that, I was thinking that he's at a disadvantage as he's not used to facing penalties. did save one though to be fair, set us up for the perfect climax though. Wouldn't have wanted it to end any other way than it did.

 

[homerdog]

Gabriel - there is a god!

 

[homerdog]

Yeah so one game defines their entire season? We were largely shite against Inter in the final. Also considering they were denied a penalty in first half, they should have won in normal time.

WTAF?

 

[mad4city]

The beauty of today is it puts their Invincibles boast in the bin. Whenever they start on the merits of that now, just poinnt out to them how they went unbeaten in this year's CL too - and won fuck all.

 

[blue_danube]

Can’t help but think that both leagues were ours to lose. Even this seasons squad, at their best, could have defeated PSG.

Nah

We simply weren't consistent enough for two years now.

Yes we can beat anyone on the day but there's too many days in a season when you have no consistency

 

[coolcity]

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta speaking in his post-match press conference:

"I watched all the penalties in the Champions League this season during the last 72 hours to understand what is a penalty and what's not, and that can easily be a penalty."

Sums up their mentality. Why would you spend the last 72 hours going through penalties unless you (a) intended to attempt to win penalties during the match or (b) try to scramble through 120 minutes to reach a penalty shootout?

 

[ninjamonkey]

I take it that's a wind up? As bad as Arsenal were, that's the only way they can play but PSG weren't exactly ripping up any trees and could easily have lost on the lottery that is penalties. I would have fancied this City team to win that by 3 or 4 goals tonight.

Back to back CL winners with a very young team, the first of which was a record scoreline. Only the second team to be back to back winners in over 35 years after the 3peat Madrid side. They'll definitely go down as one of the great sides already and have a fair shot at adding to this success over the next few years.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta speaking in his post-match press conference:

"I watched all the penalties in the Champions League this season during the last 72 hours to understand what is a penalty and what's not, and that can easily be a penalty."

Sums up their mentality. Why would you spend the last 72 hours going through penalties unless you (a) intended to attempt to win penalties during the match or (b) try to scramble through 120 minutes to reach a penalty shootout?

Imagine your chairman comes in to checkup on you in you preparation for the final and instead of running him through the plan for different scenarios you tell him you spent 3 days watching all the penalties given and not given in the competition this season. First response should be, "are you alright" and second thought should be "we've got to get rid if he fails to win it"

 

[coolcity]

Nah

We simply weren't consistent enough for two years now.

Yes we can beat anyone on the day but there's too many days in a season when you have no consistency

Last season we had up to 13 injured players at one point. You simply cannot legislate for that many injuries, and we've had a good few this season too, many of them long term. Most teams world struggle with 2 or 3 key players out.

We're also rebuilding after seeing several big players leave and they're aren't that many top quality replacements around. These things take time and too many fans are simply too much. To win 2 major trophies and ayah in the title race as long as we did under the current circumstances is a magnificent achievement.

I dread to think how some are going to cope on here if Maresca doesn't hit the ground running.

 

[Wretched Vengeance]

That puts paid to the Declan Rice debate - if ever there was one.

He's a fucking ghost.

 

[Victorinodennistua]

Be rude not to...

They will double down and over celebrate to mask the pain

Hope it fookin hail and snows for them.

 

[Davie82]

I agree, how anyone thought they controlled that game is beyond me and they're still banging on about the Madueke penalty appeal!

How come no one's talking about why the arse right back didn't get a yellow for the foul for PSG's penalty? It would've be a second yellow too...and how many times did Saka handle the ball in his own area, just the twice was it, but no mention about that either.

The bias in favour of them, today and all season, was a joke!

Are people saying Arsenal controlled the game?

For the first hour or so PSG played all the football while Arsenal made it difficult for them. I acknowledge it became more end to end after that. Was tired and fell asleep at half time in extra time and only woke during penalties, so cannot comment on the second period of extra time there.

There seems to be this thing in football where if a team is playing all the football, but struggling to break down a low block, the low block team is claimed to 'control the game' just by breaking into space and scoring. I seen it too when rags went 2-0 up at the swamp v Liverpool even though the scousers were trying to play the football.

I think if you rely on sitting back and containing and launching transitions, you cannot really claim to 'control the game'. Obviously some possession can be sterile, as some of PSG's was, but that's still better than not having the ball at all. Like, fair play if you win while sitting back, but you can hardly claim you dominated the game or were the superior team.

That's why I have always liked watching Man City, Barca and Bayern (the latter against good teams rather than weaker teams in Bundesliga). They respect the ball, try to play football, play nice patterns with passes, have dribblers etc. These type of teams are what make football the beautiful game.

 

[coolcity]

Back to back CL winners with a very young team, the first of which was a record scoreline. Only the second team to be back to back winners in over 35 years after the 3peat Madrid side. They'll definitely go down as one of the great sides already and have a fair shot at adding to this success over the next few years.

Remains to be seen. They didn't have much to beat tonight but still needed the lottery of a penalty shootout to do it which could have fine either way, and clearly last season's finalists couldn't have been up to much either. I didn't see last year's final to be fair.

As I said earlier, I'm not knocking it but they don't have a lot of competition domestically which probably gives them the advantage of resting key players regularly. Don't forget they only play 34 league matches too.

They finished below us in the group stage of the CL too, only winning 4 of the first 8 matches and if I remember correctly they finished even lower last season, just scraping in at 15th place.

So while it's a great achievement they're not exactly ripping up trees along the way and 2 seasons doesn't make them one of the best ever teams yet. They may well go on to be one day, but not on tonight's showing.

 

[Plays By Sense Of Smell]

Point good.

Only in the league.

 

[Mr. Shush]

Some takeaways from the game:

Not a penalty on Madueke. The difference to me was that both of them had ahold of each other. Their arms were locked.
Two handballs missed. Not even a VAR review. Saka's handball - how was that not reviewed?
Arse fans: "this was a free game for us", "it was a luxury". This whole season they've been touting they would win 4 trophies. They've been insufferable about it.
Arse fans: "why aren't football fans in England rooting for Arsenal", "its dreadful they're cheering against us". Seriously?
Arteta ball: get a goal, then stop attacking. PSG had 75% possession; took 21 shots. In short - they tried to win the game.
Rooney: he's a fat c***. Embarrassing he said Arse were robbed.

Football was saved.