The Stoppage Times

Paris Saint-German are champions of Europe once again, I must confess that I missed the first half hour as I had forgotten the kickoff was at 17:00 instead of the usual 20:00 we expect in Ireland and the UK but frankly had I missed more I wouldn’t be too upset.

Mikel Arteta’s side have become the least possessive side in the history of Champion’s League finals in their attempt to dethrone Luis Enrique and his PSG side from the European top spot, the Gunners managed a mere 24.7% of the possession stealing the record from… themselves as the previous low was 29.7% in the 2006 final where Arsenal were reduced to 10 men after and 18th minute red card. Arteta’s side found themselves a goal up after Kai Havertz, Mr. UCL Final, fired home from close range off of a quick counter on six minutes after which Arsenal resorted to their usual anti-football antics parking half their players behind the ball for the majority off the match though to their defence PSG’s offensive setup may be the most powerful in the world at the moment so I can’t really blame the London side.

One may say the classic phrase that this was “a game of two halves” and to a degree that would be true as the referee seemed to have lost patience with Arsenal’s time-wasting at the end of the first half blowing the whistle 30s over the alotted stoppage time while the Gunners set up to take a corner at a snail’s pace, in the second half almost instantly Cristhian Mosquera found himself to be the first player in the book as he attempted to shave a few seconds off the clock on 47 minutes though the defender was fortunate not to see another yellow card less than 20 minutes later as he clumsily took down Georgia’s star man Khvicha Kvaratskhelia inside the Arsenal box to give away their first penalty of the season. Ousmane Dembélé stepped up after a few minutes of faff and VAR checks to slot home and level the game for the French juggernauts, UEFA will just be glad that the VAR review hasn’t lead to an apology like the numerous ones PGMOL have handed out to Arsenal’s opposition this season.

The game of cat and mouse didn’t change much after the penalty was converted, Arsenal continued to try and wear down the PSG player weathering attack after attack as the navy jerseys covered the final third like the aftermath of a blizzard, the Parisian side made 307 passes inside the final third of the pitch with 273 finding another navy shirt, in comparison 63 of their opponents 111 final third efforts found another red shirt. I will give the Gunners credit where it is due, while I find their footballing system to be an abhorrent style which perfectly portrays why almost all the fans of other Premier League sides think Arsenal’s supporters are deluded when they compare any of their attackers to world class teams of the past, their defensive efforts clearly frustrated the French champions as of their 21 shots attempted only 4 were in a position to bother David Raya as the majority were off target though a pair of efforts from Vitinha, I believe, dipped just over the cross bar much to the despair of the French faithful. Their oppenents efforts would be compounded on in the shootout as Eze put their 2nd penalty beyond the left post after a runup which made me thing the RTÉ player was lagging on me and Gabriel saw his name in lights in the top right corner for the final effort but ended up putting too much behind the ball and fired it over the bar much to the behest of David Raya who had immediately cancelled out Eze’s poor effort with a save from PSG’s third effor making a superb save as Nuno Mendes powered his shot to Raya’s left with power but not a great deal of placement.

For me the big surprise of this game was the defensive metrics as other than the number of tackles and the fact that their sole defensive “error” lead to a shot instead of a goal according to Sofascore Arsenal were actually the lesser of the sides. PSG won the majority of the duels between players at 54% while both sides only succeded at 44% of their attempts to dribble past the opposition. Arguably the biggest shock though had to be the quality of tackling and quantity of interceptions, Arsenal may have made a higher quantity of tackles (18-11) however their 61% success rate for tackles, while good, was dwarfed by PSG’s 73% as the French side also scraped the higher quantity of interceptions at 8-7. For a side who tend not to concede goals there may be a question of whether Arsenal’s defence are “great” or are they does their solidity come from their ability to make use of the volume of “good” defenders they have at the club.

All that being said I must congratulate both teams on their successes this season as both sealed their domestic titles before the final day of their respective leagues and made it to the final of the biggest club competition in the world of football (sorry Chelsea but the Club World Cup isn’t there yet) with some good footballing displays across the season. I must however emphasise the congratulations to PSG as they are become the newest repeat European champions since the infamous Real Madrid “Threepeat” side of 2015/16 through 2017/18. This game was a bit of a tricky one for me to be a neutral for being a Liverpool fan with Parisian family, in the aftermath of the Premier League returning to North London after a 22 year drought and the reactions of Arsenal fans on line it does bring me joy to see them knocked down a peg.

Thank you all for reading, Lily.

Despite the fact his team lost I would like to leave a footnote in memory of my late grandfather, thank you for always making your family feel loved and for living such a rich life with so many stories, I hope that wherever or whatever comes beyond the mortal plane allows you to enjoy Arsenal being back at the pinacle of football. Lots of love, your granddaughter.