Paris Saint-Germain overcame an early Arsenal onslaught and a desperate final flurry to beat the Gunners 2-1 in Paris and advance to the Champions League final against Inter Milan on June 1 (AEST) with a 3-1 aggregate victory.
The second leg was a mirror image of the first, where PSG exploded out of the blocks and scored early to lead 1-0 at the Emirates, as Arsenal had the hosts rattled in the opening 20 minutes. Arsenal, however, did everything but score.
Declan Rice should have ruffled the net with an early header that he sent just wide of the post, and then Gianluigi Donnarumma made sharp saves to deny Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard.
With Arsenal dominating shots and possession, the PSG opener came against the run of play. Thomas Partey’s defensive header was weak and collected by PSG No.8 Fabian Ruiz, who checked inside and drove his shot past David Raya.
The goal took steam out of Arsenal’s attack and increased the volume at the Parc des Princes.
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Paris were keeping the Gunners at arms length and were given a soft penalty on VAR for hand ball against Myles Lewis-Skelly 15 minutes into the second period.
Raya got down well to save Vitinha’s soft attempt, but PSG didn’t have to wait long to extend the margin in the tie to three with Achraf Hakimi driving past the Arsenal keeper.
The Gunners had a glimmer of hope four minutes later when Bukayo Saka, earlier brilliantly denied by Donnarumma, bundled the ball in after a defensive mix-up. Saka had an excellent chance to cut the score to 3-2 minutes later but he sent a cross from Ricciardo Calafiori over the bar with Donnarumma beaten.
Having survived that scare, PSG held their nerve to reach the Champions League final for the second time in their history. Their only other visit resulted in a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in 2020.
“Difficult to take for Arsenal. Another semi-final they end up losing. It’s becoming a little bit of a habit which is not great,” said former Arsenal defender Matthew Upson on BBC.
Arsenal lost the League Cup semis to Newcastle this season and the past two seasons have been ones of near misses in the league.
On the balance, Paris deserved their win, and they have come a huge distance under Luis Enrique since finishing 15th in the league table.
“In the past, they had star players, now they have a star team, and no more can be encapsulated by Hakimi, who had, by his standards, not the best of nights, but pops up and scores their ultimate goal,” said Mark Bosnich on Stan Sport.
“Donnarumma, special mention. He has come under justified criticism in previous seasons for some of the mistakes that he’s made, he has been absolutely outstanding. That save he made against Odegaard in the first half was the save of the tournament.”
Former Socceroo Craig Foster said Donnarumma continued a Champions League trend.
“There’s a very good reason why the top teams in the world, who are winning Champions Leagues, have one of the three or four top goalkeepers in the world, who were in form in that particular year as well,” said Foster on Stan Sport.
“[Thibaut] Courtois was central to what Real Madrid have done over recent years, and Donnarumma, in a number of games, not just here, but right throughout this season’s Champions League, he’s been unbelievable.
“He’s on a completely different level to what he was only a couple of years ago. This season, he’s growing into the talent that it was clear that he had, he was expected to become one of the best, and what he’s done this season has been unbelievable.
“That save in the first half really summed up firstly, his quality, secondly, what PSG have become now – this resilience that they’ve got, and thirdly, the importance of having a great, great goalkeeper if you want to live through these moments.
“For the Gunners, the first half, I don’t think they could have done much more. They put them under the most intense pressure, but you’re pressuring a different beast today. You’re this iteration of PSG under pressure, and they do not crack in the way that they used to do so.”
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