Macdara Ferris reports from the Munich Football Arena
Paris Saint-Germain 5 (Hakimi 12, Doué 20 & 63, Kvaratskhelia 73, Mayulu 86)
Inter Milan 0
The world witnessed the entry of a new global football star as Désiré Doué stole the show in Paris Saint-Germain’s incredible 5-0 win over Inter Milan in Munich.
He scored two and provided the assist for the opener as the French side dominated the match with the largest winning margin in a European Cup final.
The French side had made the covid final in 2020 only to lose out to Bayern Munich in what the Germans would call a geisterspiele – a ghost game in front of no fans. This time around they were cheered on by incredible support and the Parisian’s left the ghost of that final defeat behind them to secure their first Champions League crown – and only the second European Cup for a French side.
It was a whirlwind of a first half from Paris Saint-Germain but still the smoke from the celebratory PSG flares after their two goals inside 20 minutes hung in the air all first half like the questions hanging around Inter’s performance.
The Serie A side were completely blitzed by PSG who ran rampant with the surprise mostly being how Paris only led 2-0 at the break but they built on that in the second half. In the first 45 the Ligue 1 winners hit the target five times from 13 shots while the Italian side failed to trouble Gianluigi Donnarumma in the Parisian goal.
Simone Inzaghi’s team had only conceded one goal in the league phase of the Champions League but had let in six across their stunning semi-final two leg victory over Barcelona. PSG went at the Serie A runners up and Luis Enrique’s front three gave all sorts of trouble to the Inter defence that had to be more of a five at the back rather than a three under all that pressure.
Enrique went with 19-year-old Doué ahead of Bradley Barcola and boy did that pay off.
There was talk ahead of the game of the age of the Inter team going up against a youthful, if expensively put together, PSG side and it was the teenager Doué who stood out in the fluid PSG front three that showed so much flair.
He provided the assist for the opener scored by Achraf Hakimi in the 12th minute and then doubled PSG’s lead before the opening period even reached the halfway point.
Inter were carved open for the first goal. Doué had so much space to pick up Vitinha's pass and to square it to Achraf Hakimi who was all on his own to side foot home from close range. He scored in front of the fans who used to cheer him on at the San Siro and he declined to celebrate against his former club but his teammates more than made up for it.
Doué then doubled the lead from a sweeping move from PSG’s own end line. Willian Pacho prevented the ball going out for a corner allowing his team to counter. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and then Ousmane Dembele went down the left and with Doué coming in from the right, his effort hit the back of the net off the foot of Federico Dimarco.
Yann Sommer in the Inter goal had to be on his toes throughout the half and he was solid with his saves and with his feet under the PSG press. He gathered cleanly efforts from Doué, Dembele and Fabian Ruiz.
Inter were pegged back in their own half under all that pressure and their only real chance of note came from a corner eight minutes from the break. Henrik Mkhitaryan found Marcus Thuram at the back post but his effort flashed just wide of the goal.
Inzaghi didn’t make any changes at the break but brought two fresh players in within ten minutes of the second period starting as they looked to get back in the game. It was to no avail though as PSG just kept flying.
Doué had his second and Paris’ third putting the game beyond Inter with a little under a half an hour left. Dembele's back heel released Vitinha and he slid in Doué who rifled home with his right.
It was four in the 73rd minute when Kvaratskhelia capped off a superb performance by scoring. He raced through the ineffective offside trap onto Dembele's through ball and slammed it by Sommer with his left foot.
The rout was completed four minutes from time when substitutes Senny Mayulu and Bradley Barcola combined with Mayulu slotting home the fifth and final goal off the post.
There was just a buzz around the ground with that fifth goal as PSG secured the largest ever win in a European Cup final and people couldn’t quite believe what they had seen.
Paris Saint Germain: Gianluigi Donnarumma; Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos ©, Willian Pacho, Nuno Mendes (Lucas Hernandez 73); João Neves (Warren Zaïre-Emery 84), Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz (Senny Mayulu 84); Désiré Doué (Bradley Barcola 63), Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Goncalo Ramos 84).
Subs not used: Matvei Safonov, Presnel Kimpembe, Kang-in Lee, Ibrahim Mbaye, Arnau Tenas Ureña, Lucas Lopes Beraldo.
Booked: Désiré Doué (65), Achraf Hakimi (90+1)
Inter: Yann Sommer; Benjamin Pavard (Yann Bisseck 54 [Matteo Darmian 62]), Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni; Denzel Dumfries, Nicolo Barella, Hakan Calhanoglu (Kristjan Asllani 70), Henrik Mkhitaryan (Carlos Zopolato Neves 62), Federico Dimarco (Piotr Zielinski 54); Marcus Thuram, Lautaro Martinez ©.
Subs not used: Nicola Zalewski, Stefan de Vrij, Marko Arnautovic, Davide Frattesi, Mehdi Taremi, Josep Martínez Riera, Raffaele Di Gennaro.
Booked: Piotr Zielinski (57), Marcus Thuram (69), Francesco Acerbi (71)
Referee: István Kovács (Romania)
Attendance: 64,000 (estimate)
extratime.com Player of the Match: Désiré Doué (PSG)