Paris Saint-Germain successfully defended their UEFA Champions League title, defeating Arsenal 4-3 in a tense penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest early Sunday morning.
The result secures back-to-back European crowns for PSG under Luis Enrique. For Arsenal, the defeat prolongs an agonizing continental drought. This marked their 226th match in the European Cup or Champions League without lifting the trophy, the longest active streak in the sport, arriving just weeks after they ended a 22-year wait for the Premier League title.
Arsenal took control early. Kai Havertz found the net in the sixth minute to give the English side the lead. The early goal allowed Arsenal to sit back and defend the advantage. They were limited to just 24.7% possession, a metric confirmed in a statistical breakdown by AP News as the lowest recorded by any team in a Champions League final since Opta began tracking the data in 2004.
PSG pressed for an equalizer and found it in the second half. Ousmane Dembélé converted a 65th-minute penalty to level the score.
The match remained deadlocked through the rest of regulation and an exhausting extra time period. This was the first time the Champions League final required extra time in 10 years, a grueling stretch detailed in live commentary by The Guardian covering the final substitutions and the eventual penalty shootout.
While London rivals celebrated earlier this week when Crystal Palace won the Conference League, Arsenal faced crushing pressure at the spot. In the shootout, Lucas Beraldo calmly converted PSG’s fifth penalty. Gabriel Magalhães stepped up for Arsenal but missed his attempt, sealing the Parisian victory.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta acknowledged the devastating end to their season in the aftermath. “We got a big one, and missed on the biggest one,” Arteta said, referencing their recent domestic triumph, according to post-match quotes published by Al Jazeera.