PSG Beat Arsenal 4‑3 on Penalties to Become Back‑to‑Back Champions League Winners

Arsenal suffered heartbreak in the Champions League final in Budapest, losing 4‑3 on penalties to PSG after a 1‑1 draw in 120 minutes.

The match was poised to be historic for the winner: Arsenal were chasing their first Champions League title 20 years after their last final appearance, while PSG were aiming to defend the trophy they won last summer.

Paris St‑Germain confirmed their status as one of Europe’s greatest teams by becoming only the second club to retain the Champions League.

The nervy 4‑3 win on penalties over Arsenal complemented their 5‑0 victory over Inter Milan in Munich a year earlier.

With this triumph PSG became the first side to successfully defend the title since Real Madrid’s three‑peat from 2016 to 2018, and only the second to do so in the Champions League era (1993 onwards).

Across the competition’s 71‑year history, PSG are now just the 10th club to win successive titles.

All ten outfield players who started the match against Arsenal also started the win over Inter Milan. Only goalkeeper Matvey Safonov was new, replacing Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was signed by Manchester City last summer.

Over the past two years Luis Enrique’s team has dominated almost every competition they have entered. Since the start of last season they have won eight of the 10 trophies available to them, missing only last summer’s Club World Cup and this campaign’s French Cup.

If PSG maintain their dominance next season they could become the fifth side to win three successive Champions League/European Cup titles, although Real Madrid’s record of five consecutive European Cups (1956‑1960) remains far out of reach.

“Tonight PSG have made history,” said European football journalist Julien Laurens on BBC Radio 5 Live. “This PSG team will be talked about as one of the greatest of all time.”

Laurens added that PSG’s second Champions League crown “puts them in another dimension.” He noted that the French champions scored the most goals (45) and recorded the highest average possession (60.5 %) in this season’s competition.

“Now they are in the conversation with those great teams. Pep Guardiola never did it with Lionel Messi and Barcelona, or with Manchester City either,” Laurens said. “If you win one it’s great, one and you are happy. But back‑to‑back is a different story.”

Paris St‑Germain were playing in their third final. Their first was in 2019‑20, when they lost 1‑0 to Bayern Munich in Portugal.

By winning a second Champions League title, PSG also became the best‑performing French club in the competition, surpassing rivals Marseille, who have one title.