Desire Doue celebrates with Achraf Hakimi (Photo by Molly Darlington/Copa/Getty Images)
After an intriguing season of Champions League football, we have two finalists to battle it out for glory at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Sunday (5am AEST).
Paris Saint-Germain are trying to become European champions for the first time in their history, while Inter Milan are aiming to claim Europe’s premier competition for the fourth time. Looking ahead to an exciting contest, whose team’s star personnel will rise to the top?
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Ousmane Dembele vs Lautaro Martinez
There is no better place to start than each side’s premier goal scorers. Ousmane Dembele and Lautaro Martinez have scored eight goals and nine goals respectively, also putting the pair in the tournament’s top 10 goal scorers. Dembele will be content on putting aside former Champions League knockout demons, most notably his miss to put Barcelona 4-0 up on aggregate against Liverpool, to inspire his team to a maiden triumph. For Martinez, the regrets of the 2022-23 final loss to Man City still live long in the memory, and he will be looking to bury such golden chances if they come his way in Munich.
Dembele has completely revitalised his career this season under Spanish manager Luis Enrique. A big part of that is to do with his positional shift from an out-and-out winger to a free-roaming false nine. The 27-year-old has eight goals from 14 Champions League appearances while playing centrally, coming up clutch against Liverpool with his tie-levelling goal at Anfield in the round of 16, and also put the Parisians ahead against Arsenal in the semi-final away at the Emirates within five minutes. Able to use his right foot as proficiently as his left, Dembele will pose constant questions to the Inter back-three on whether to hold the line or follow the Frenchman when he drops deep.
PSG’s Desire Doue celebrates a knockout win over Aston Villa with Achraf Hakimi (Photo by Molly Darlington/Copa/Getty Images)
While many may consider this season to be a down year for the ever-reliable Martinez, the Argentine’s goal record in the Champions League is still well and truly amongst the elite. Playing wounded last round against Barca in the second leg, it was still Martinez who got Inter going with a clinical finish at the 21-minute mark and, just before halftime, demonstrated his forward craft to win the Italian side a crucial penalty. He will again be one of Simone Inzhagi’s go-to trump cards with his football smarts and clinical finishing, playing foil to the imposing Marcus Thuram, who will also be a nuisance to the Paris backline with his hold-up play.
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Vitinha vs Nicolo Barella
Along with PSG’s impressive rise to one of the best sides in Europe under Enrique has been the astronomical elevation of Portuguese midfield maestro Vitinha to one of the game’s best midfield players. Vitinha has featured in all 16 of PSG’s Champions League fixtures up to the final, proving irreplaceable with his role in the Parisians’ elite midfield trio consisting of João Neves and Fabian Ruiz. While diminutive in stature, Vintinha compensates with elite technical prowess and control of the game, which is evident with his 100 touches averaged per game along with an elite pass accuracy rate of 93.9%. When PSG struggled early in the season, Vitinha was effectively nullified through physical pressure, which disrupted the 25-year-old’s metronomic rhythm. Notably, Arsenal and Aston Villa have shown the blueprint to Inter, who have the ideal hard-working personnel to disrupt the midfielder’s final.
One of these profiles of players that Inzaghi would use to target Vitinha’s athletic limitations will come in the form of the hustling Nicolo Barella. Despite often going under the radar, when watching the Inter system in full flow, it is evident that Barella lies at the centre of it all. The tenacious 28-year-old not only carries the creative burden, but is also required to cover relentlessly all over the pitch due to the number of times Inter’s wing-backs bomb up the pitch. Inter will likely deploy a low-block for a decent chunk of the final, requiring Barella to again play an important defensive role, but he will also be the first link to initiate the team’s many counterattacks with his underrated technical qualities.
Achraf Hakimi vs Denzel Dumfries
Ashraf Hakimi is one of the world’s best right-backs for a reason. Not only does the Moroccan possess solid defensive ability, averaging 7 recoveries and almost two tackles won per 90, but he has also elevated the attacking side of his game to the next level this term. Averaging 2 shots per game from right-back, Hakimi has shown his potential as an offensive weapon for Enrique this season, netting two important goals in PSG’s quarterfinal and semi-final triumphs en route to the final. The 26-year-old will face a different challenge against Inter, who operate with their wingbacks as wingers, but it is a game plan that the PSG right-back can also exploit himself with how much space will be left in the wide channels at times.
Similar to Hakimi’s value to PSG, Inter’s bombing right-wing-back Denzel Dumfries is perhaps the make-or-break piece of Inter’s five-back formation, along with partner in crime Federico Di Marco. The Flying Dutchman is coming off a career-best sequence of two games against Barcelona in the semi-final, with two goals and three assists coming against the Catalan giants across the two legs. Barcelona’s fullbacks weren’t able to deal with Dumfries’s relentless work rate and athleticism and were duly punished for it. This is a challenge PSG left-back Nuno Mendes will have to rise to; otherwise, the 29-year-old Dumfries may be set for another man-of-the-match outing in the Italian club’s most important game of the season.
Other Key battles: Gianluigi Donnarumma vs Yann Sommer, Marquinhos vs Alessandro Bastoni, and João Neves vs Hakan Çalhanoğlu
Prediction: PSG 3-2 Inter Milan