SOCCER: Arsenal’s sweet season soured by Champions League final loss to PSG

Following a 1-1 draw on the back 120 minutes of chess-like soccer between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest in the final on 30 May, it was the Parisians that edged a highly contested encounter with a 4-3 penalty shootout victory, denying Arsenal a maiden Champions League title.

It was always set to be a battle between two sides of the same soccer coin in the 2025/26 European Champions League final on Saturday, 30 May – Arsenal’s supreme defence versus Paris Saint-Germain’s (PSG) imperious attack. In the end, these two cancelled each other out as the match ended 1-1 after extra time.

Kai Havertz opened the scoring on five minutes with a scorching strike, which ended up being Arsenal’s sole shot on target for the remainder of the match.

PSG earned an equaliser midway through the second stanza as Georgian forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was brought down in the box and German referee Daniel Siebert immediately ruled it as a penalty. Ousmane Dembélé stepped up to slot the ball past David Raya and bring his team back into the match.

With the two team’s respective strengths cancelling each other out, penalties were required to separate them. PSG’s players held their nerve for a 4-3 win in the shootout as Arsenal missed two of their spot kicks. First to not score his penalty was forward Eberechi Eze, but Arsenal’s hope was restored when Portuguese fullback Nuno Mendes also failed from the spot for PSG.

Then Brazilian defender Gabriel Magalhães stepped up to take the Gunners’ make-or-break fifth penalty at an electric Puskás Aréna in Budapest. He hit his strike wide of the goal as PSG broke into celebrations after successfully retaining the prestigious trophy they clinched for the first time a year ago.

Speaking after the defeat in what was just Arsenal’s second appearance in a Champions League decider, and the first final they had played in the competition for 20 years, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said he and his players were devastated.

“Pain. That’s it. When you are so close in the competition and you are a few penalty kicks away from winning the biggest club football competition, that’s the way we should feel,” Arteta said.

On what comes next for his team after a season that had a number of positives, Arteta stated: “First of all, you have to go through that pain, digest it and turn it into fuel to improve to reach a different level.

“It will demand a different level with the quality around Europe. I want to congratulate PSG and their manager Luis [Enrique] in particular. In my opinion they’re the best team in the world.

“What they are able