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Sensational PSG's Easiest Champions League Game Was the Final

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Crispin Leyser | Last updated May 31, 2025 8:55 PM ET

PSG wrote themselves into the history books with their 5-0 demolition of Inter Milan - the biggest margin of victory ever in a Champions League Final. But it was a long road to get there, one that started nervously and got easier the further they went in the competition.

The Group Stages

Let's cast our minds back to the group stages. The first five matches started with PSG losing three of them (to Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich), drawing with PSG and notching just one win, a tight 1-0 victory over Girona.

PSG scraped into the knockout phase of the tournament in a lowly 15th place thanks to victories in their last three games against Salzburg, Manchester City and Stuttgart.

The Knockout Stage

After thrashing Brest in the Play-offs, PSG got paired against the team widely considered the best in Europe at the time. Liverpool had cruised through the group stages in first place and were the EPL leaders too.

Despite dominating Liverpool in the first leg, PSG lost 0-1 at home to a sucker punch goal and had to go the fortress that is Anfield with the odds stacked against them.

Donnarumma's Penalty Heroics

The second leg was a mirror image of the first, but with Liverpool dominating this time. An early goal from Dembélé, coupled with Donnarumma's heroics in goal in normal time and a penalty shoot out saw PSG squeak through.

The Route to the Final

Aston Villa awaited in the quarter finals and PSG notched a fairly comfortable 3-1 victory in the first leg. The game looked over when Hakimi and Mendes struck early to put the French Champions 5-1 up on aggregate in the away leg at Villa Park, but Villa fought back and gave PSG the fright of their lives, reducing the deficit to 5-4 in the 57th minute. Once again they held on.

In the semi finals PSG faced an Arsenal team desperate for European glory to salvage their season. Though tight, PSG controlled both matches winning both by a solitary goal (1-0 and 2-1) to advance fairly comfortably to the final.

Barcelona Avoided

PSG had eliminated their strongest challengers, Liverpool, on penalties. Meanwhile on the other side of the draw Inter Milan performed heroics to get past Barcelona over two utterly thrilling ties.

It's safe to say Barcelona would have provided a far stiffer test for PSG in the final, with the threat that Yamal and Raphinha bring.

But it wasn't to be, and PSG who have grown in stature and style as the tournament progressed faced an Inter team still coming to terms with blowing their lead in Serie A at the last and letting Napoli pip them at the post.

The rest as they say is history...and history-making. It was the most one-sided Champions League Final ever and by far the easiest game PSG played in the tournament this season since the play-off game.

It's seems crazy now to consider how close they were to being eliminated in the group stages.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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