The 2025 Champions League final promises to pit two colossal forces of European football against each other, in search of club football’s greatest prize.
For the first time in 21 years, since Jose Mourinho’s Porto beat Didier Deschamps’ Monaco in 2004, there will be no Spanish, German or English side contesting the final. But no clubs are arguably more deserving of being crowned European champions this season than Paris Saint-Germain and Inter.
After struggling in the league phase, PSG have ripped through the best that England has had to offer in the knockout stages, pummelling Liverpool before eventually emerging victorious on penalties, then seeing off a plucky Aston Villa, and lastly brushing Arsenal aside.
They have never won the European Cup or Champions League before, only once getting to the final, when they lost narrowly against Bayern Munich in an empty stadium in Lisbon in 2020.
Inter have a much richer history at Europe’s top table, three-time winners – albeit not since 2010, and finalists more recently in 2023 when Manchester City were 1-0 victors. Their knockout route this time has been similarly tough, facing a Bayern Munich side in the last eight determined to reach the final in their home stadium, as well as a high-powered Barcelona in the semis.
Neither team has had a ‘dead rubber’ end to their respective domestic seasons in preparation for this game. PSG may have already had the Ligue 1 title sewn up, but contested the Coupe de France final against Reims. Inter meanwhile, have been neck and neck with Napoli in Serie A.
Current form (all competitions)
PSG
Inter
PSG 3-1 Auxerre – 17/05/25
Inter 2-2 Lazio – 18/05/25
Montpellier 1-4 PSG – 10/05/25
Torino 0-2 Inter – 11/05/25
PSG 2-1 Arsenal – 07/05/25
Inter 4-3 (AET) Barcelona – 06/05/25
Strasbourg 2-1 PSG – 03/05/25
Inter 1-0 Hellas Verona- 03/05/25
Ousmane Dembele has been PSG’s hero time and again / Michael Steele/GettyImages
Newly crowned Ligue 1 Player of the Year, Ousmane Dembele could only make an appearance as a substitute in the semi-final second leg against Arsenal because of a minor hamstring injury. He sat out the next game back in Ligue 1 too, but the noise from PSG is that it has been nothing serious.
Long-serving defender Presnel Kimpembe is ruled out, but he had already been relegated to a fringe player even when fit earlier in the campaign.
PSG predicted lineup vs Inter (4-3-3) Donnarumma; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Mendes; Neves, Vitinha, Ruiz; Doue, Dembele, Kvaratskhelia.
Lautaro Martinez is Inter’s key player / Nicolò Campo/GettyImages
By his own admission, Inter captain and talisman Lautaro Martinez wasn’t fully fit for the decisive semi-final second leg against Barcelona. He scored his team’s crucial opening goal but only lasted 70 minutes and has remained a doubt as medical staff try to get him ready to go.
Matchwinner Davide Frattesi was another who played against Barcelona with an injury.
Frattesi, Benjamin Pavard and Henrik Mkhitaryan should all be fit. The big doubt is Martinez, but having played through the pain once, don’t count against him putting his body on the line again.
Inter predicted lineup vs PSG (3-5-2) Sommer; Bisseck, Acerbi, Bastoni; Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Martinez, Thuram.
If we’ve learnt nothing else from the rest of the knockout phase, it’s that these two teams can score goals at will, and concede them too.
Since getting their act together on matchday six of the league phase, PSG have netted 31 times at an average of 2.8 per game. But it’s been only six clean sheets in 16 European games this season.
Inter were the exact opposite during the league phase, breached only once at the back in eight games, but scoring just 11 or their own. That has largely gone out of the window in the knockouts, where it’s been 15 scored across eight games and just a single clean sheet. In the semi-final against Barcelona alone, both teams racked up 13 goals between them across 210 minutes.
Champions League finals don’t tend to be thrilling end to end affairs – four finals in a row between 2020 and 2023 all finished 1-0, including PSG and Inter’s most recent appearances. Last year, it wound up a comfortable 2-0 win for Real Madrid in the end.
But these two clubs feel like the pair to break that often anti-climactic nature of the Champions League final. Be braced for goals, and possibly even extra-time to decide it.
Prediction: PSG 2-3 Inter (aet)UK
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Germany
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