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There was an explosion of PSG joy after that full-time whistle.
The bench poured onto the pitch to celebrate with the players, many of whom had fallen to the floor out of pure emotion.
PSG manager Luis Enrique stumbled onto the field, looking slightly overwhelmed with his team’s performance.
His coaching staff then ran to celebrate with their boss, who ran to the fans behind the PSG goal.
This win means so much to Les Parisiens, but maybe even more to Enrique who has suffered unimaginable heartbreak since the death of his daughter, Xana, in 2019.
The referee blows the final whistle and Paris Saint-Germain is champion of Europe for the very first time! What’s more, it has done so by a record-breaking margin – 5-0.
The French side just had way too much for its Italian opposition tonight. Goals from Achraf Hakimi, two from Désiré Doué, and one more from each of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Senny Mayulu have PSG fans celebrating wildly, and the Inter fans – those who are left in the stadium – crestfallen.
It is the first time since 1993 that a French team has won the Champions League, and only the second time ever. Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Neymar and many more have tried and failed to win the Champions League for Les Parisiens, but the likes of Ousmane Dembélé, Marquinhos and Gianluigi Donnarumma will now go down in history.
We are witnessing the greatest night in the history of PSG.
Score: PSG 5-0 Inter Milan
PSG is making it look easy.
It’s 5-0 and this time it’s the substitutes getting a piece of the action.
Teenager Senny Mayulu put the finishing touches on a beautiful move where he linked up with fellow subs Bradley Barcola and Warren Zaïre-Emery.
The French youngsters moved the Inter team around with clever passes and triangles and waltzed into the Nerazzurri box with ease.
Mayulu looks like he can’t believe it and I’m sure the PSG fans are having to pinch themselves in the stands.
Wow.
Score: PSG 5-0 Inter Milan
Paris Saint-Germain is about to finish up what might be the ultimate Ewing Theory season.
What is the Ewing Theory? Glad you asked.
Bill Simmons, founder of The Ringer and former writer for ESPN, came up with the theory to describe the phenomenon of a team having an incredibly successful season just after losing a star player. It was named after Patrick Ewing because a friend of Simmons was convinced that Ewing’s teams played better when he was on the bench.
PSG had been anchored by Kylian Mbappé, the immense French talent who had been at the club since he was a teenager, for the last several years. Even as other stars came in and out and top managers came and went, Mbappé was the focal point for Les Parisiens.
After a drawn-out drama, Mbappé left the French capital for the Spanish one, joining soccer giant Real Madrid in a long-discussed move before this season. It was the end of an era in Paris, a time when high-profile players brought increased expectations but could not win the Champions League.
Now that Mbappé and the rest – Lionel Messi, Neymar, etc. – are gone, what has PSG done? Only gone on one to have one of the most successful seasons in French soccer history.
Unless Inter Milan has some sort of miracle up their sleeve (spoiler: they won’t), Luis Enrique and his team will have won the European treble this year by taking the French Ligue 1, cup and Champions League.
No stars? No problem. A new generation has arrived in glittering style.
Inter fans I spoke to before this final had spent hours traveling to Munich and paid eyewatering amounts of money to get their hands on a ticket.
But after that fourth goal, some have seen enough and are heading for the exit.
In fairness, it’s only a small amount, but there are now some empty seats in the Inter end.
This simply wasn’t how it was meant to go for them.
It’s well and truly party time in Munich for Paris Saint-Germain… and their fans are well and truly soaking up every second of it!
Their supporters are taunting their Inter counterparts know by doing the now famous ‘Poznan’ celebration, where supporters turn their backs to the on-the-pitch action, linking and jumping up and down while chanting in unison.
And what’s more the first chants of “Championes, Championes, Olé! Olé! Olé!” have started ringing out.
Inter fans on the flip side have been stunned into silence, crestfallen at just how one-sided this contest has been with their team barely landing a glove on their opponents.
And the pain isn’t over yet… we still have another 15 minutes to play and this could yet get uglier for the Italian outfit.
This game is over. Inter is down 4-0 and it looks like it could get worse at any moment. Simone Inzaghi’s side has just never gotten going and, after losing the league to Napoli on the final day of the season, the players look like they are just waiting for their vacations to begin.
But they can’t switch off now. Not since 1994 has a team lost a Champions League final by four or more goals. No team has ever lost one by five or more. The Nerazzurri are going to have to pull together if they’re going to avoid making unwanted history.
It’s starting to get ugly out there for Inter Milan as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia makes it 4-0 to PSG.
The Georgian winger was played in one-on-one by Ousmane Dembélé and Kvaratskhelia made no mistake with the finish.
As the game has gotten increasingly stretched in the second-half, PSG has taken advantage of the holes in the Inter defense.
There were acres of space again behind the defenders with Kvaratskhelia the beneficiary this time around.
Dembélé played a vital role in this goal as well and will now be after one of his own as Les Parisiens run riot.
Score: PSG 4-0 Inter Milan
Players like Désiré Doué are the reason people start loving this sport.
The teenager is playing the biggest game of his life but he doesn’t seem overwhelmed at all.
The forward, who many hadn’t even heard of before this season, has now produced two goals and one assist.
You feel this is the game Doué becomes more of a household name. What’s scary is that he’s nowhere near his prime age yet.
PSG fans are now jumping with their backs turned to the game. It really couldn’t have gone better for them.
The club is now so close to making history by winning its first Champions League trophy, and Doué is a big reason for that.
It’s another counterattack and another goal for PSG!
Les Parisiens went from back to front in just a matter of seconds and it was another move finished off by the irrepressibly talented Désiré Doué.
PSG broke once again with Ousmane Dembélé who found the onrushing midfielder Vitinha.
Vitinha played a perfectly weighted pass to the 19-year-old Doué who finished tidily past Yann Sommer to score his second of the game.
This must be game over now.
Score: PSG 3-0 Inter Milan
PSG have tried the “Galacticos” approach, signing as many stars as they could, and – in terms of winning the Champions League – it didn’t work.
This is a whole new era for the club, a whole new ethos and approach to the beautiful game under Luis Enrique.
Up to now, Marseille are the only French club to have been crowned champions of Europe. Thirty-two years on, PSG as of right now remain on course to rewrite history and become the second.
Credit to the Nerazzurri, they have come out for this second half with renewed energy. They’re not pulling up any trees, but they have shown an intent that was sorely lacking in the first half.
Set pieces look to be a good option for Inter, with Francesco Acerbi nearly getting on the end of a free kick from Hakan Çalhanoğlu. Gianluigi Donnarumma stayed down afterward, a move which was unpopular with the Inter man – and the fans.
Simone Inzaghi is not very pleased, either. The Inter manager has just been shown a yellow card for dissent.
Score: PSG 2-0 Inter Milan
It was striking to see the different body language from the players after emerging back onto the pitch.
PSG all got together in a huddle, while Inter’s stars just wandered into their position – summing up how this game has gone so far.
The Inter supporters are trying to encourage their team but reacted furiously after their team waste a free kick from a dangerous position.
Inter Milan has kicked the second half off and the Italian side has their work cut out to turn this game around.
But 45 minutes is a long time in soccer and anything is possible.
Can Inter Milan mount a comeback? We’ll find out!
Score: PSG 2-0 Inter Milan
Fans are keeping themselves entertained during the break by lighting up the Allianz Arena with their camera phones’ flashlights.
Most of it, to be fair, is coming from the huge stand opposite me, which is reserved for the corporate guests.
People are now filtering back to their seats, armed with hot dogs and pretzels.
A big half coming up for Inter Milan.
Sometimes, the stats paint a different picture to the one we’re looking at – but not this time.
PSG controlled the half from start to finish with 61% possession in the opening 45 minutes.
Les Parisiens didn’t waste that possession either and completed 91% of their 337 attempted passes. Inter Milan, on the other hand, has only completed 82% of its 197 passes attempted.
This is also reflected in the efforts on goal. PSG had 13 shots in the first half compared to Inter Milan’s two.
Simone Inzaghi needs to work something out during the break to stop the PSG dominance.
The atmosphere from both ends of the stadium couldn’t be more different as the half-time whistle sounded.
Paris Saint-Germain supporters cheered to at the top of their voices. They’re in heaven after what’s been a near perfect 45 minutes. In fact, they may well be ruing their team having not already put this game to bed.
For Inter supporters, it’s a case of anger and despair. The trigger? Misplaced passes and a basic lack of communication between the players with no consistency or fluidity in their play.
Despite a raucous opening salvo from their supporters, PSG’s brilliance and dominance has stifled the Inter squad and silenced its supporters.
As first halves go, that was pretty much perfect from PSG. Goals from Achraf Hakimi and Désiré Doué have the French fans in dreamland, and it could have been three just before half-time if Ousmane Dembélé had been wearing his shooting boots.
This kind of dominance in a Champions League final is close to unprecedented – not since 2005 has a team been up by two or more goals at the break.
The one ray of light that Inter might be able to hold onto is that 2005 final saw one of the greatest comebacks ever in the competition’s history – Liverpool’s victory on penalties after a 3-3 draw with AC Milan.
Twenty years ago, Inter’s city rival was 3-0 up against Liverpool at half-time, but goals from Steven Gerrard, Vladimír Šmicer and Xabi Alonso saw the Reds pull off the impossible.
Inter coach Simone Inzaghi could do worse than to remind his players about the so-called “Miracle of Istanbul.” After all, his brother, Filippo, played for AC Milan at the time.
Should Inter score the next goal, it’s very much game on.
Score: PSG 2-0 Inter Milan
It should be 3-0.
PSG’s star of the season Ousmane Dembélé has passed up a glorious chance to get his name on the scoresheet and finish the game before it’s even half-time.
It was another patient move from PSG with youngster Désiré Doué causing problems once more.
Doué cut inside from the left and whipped a ball to the far post which found Dembélé just yards from goal.
But Dembélé’s effort was more like a clearance than a shot on goal and Inter Milan are lucky to still be in this game.
Pointing, gesturing and shouting out instructions… Simone Inzaghi is giving it his all on the touchline, but his energy and exuberance haven’t yet transmitted themselves to his players.
The jacket has officially come off as Inzaghi tries for anything to change the vibe.
There’s been much talk in the build-up to this game about Inter’s aging squad and it’s showing.
Strikers Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram are cutting frustrated figures up front with little to no service coming their way.
Add to that Paris Saint-Germain has nullified the threat from Inter’s attacking fullbacks Denzel Dumfries and Federico Dimarco.
You feel that the best chance for the Nerazzurri to get back into this game will come via a set-piece.
We’ve seen Inter pull off several stunning comebacks in this year’s competition but will this be one step too far?
