PSG crush Inter Milan to end long quest for Champions League glory ⁰

At long last, Paris Saint-Germain have their hands on the big one.

After a string of embarrassing Champions League debacles, PSG fans had come to despair of ever winning the biggest trophy in European club football.

When victory finally came on a balmy night in Munich, it proved almost too easy, with a thumping 5-0 defeat of three-time winners Inter Milan – the widest margin of victory in the competition’s 70-year history.

PSG’s astonishing triumph caps a rollercoaster journey that began in 2010 with a lunch at the Élysée Palace attended by Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, the Qatari emir whose tiny gas-rich country was poised to change European club football forever.

Fifteen years, several billion euros, and some notorious Champions League fiascos later, the team owned by Qatar Sports Investments are finally at the apex of the sport. 

It’s been a steep learning curve for the Parisian upstarts, who had to first ditch their ‘Galactico’ delusions before finding the winning formula.

On paper, the team that triumphed in Munich was PSG’s least eye-catching in years, stripped of the likes of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, the frustratingly inconsistent poster boy for the club’s “bling-bling” era.

But it was also their most accomplished – and in no small measure.

In two years at the helm, coach Luis Enrique has transformed PSG from an assortment of overpriced soloists to a youthful, cohesive and tactically disciplined unit that has delivered some of the most entertaining football this season.

Source: France 24