Budapest

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Winning the Champions League was so nice, Paris Saint-Germain had to do it twice.

PSG became back-to-back European champion by beating Arsenal 4-3 on penalties in a dramatic final in Budapest that ended 1-1 after extra time on Saturday.

“It’s incredible,” captain Marquinhos said. “From the very first day of this season, the coach said it’s hard to win, and winning twice is even more difficult. So we all had to get back to work. That was the mentality.”

Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes fired the last of his team’s penalties over the bar to hand PSG the shootout win.

The French giant is only the second team to retain the trophy in the modern era after all-time king of Europe Real Madrid.

Luis Enrique became a three-time winner as a coach and has molded a team that is simply too good even for the best the continent has to offer. That includes an Arsenal team that won the Premier League last week and topped the first stage of the Champions League with a perfect winning record, finishing 10 points and 10 places ahead of PSG.

That mattered little in Puskas Arena as PSG reaffirmed its status as the dominant force in European soccer.

“It’s even more special because we knew before the match how difficult it would be,” Luis Enrique said. “I think it’s deserved over the course of the whole season, even if the final was very closely contested.”

After demolishing Inter Milan 5-0 in last year’s final, PSG endured a tougher foe as Arsenal sat deep and relied on the best defense in the competition.

PSG dominated possession but created little after going behind to a Kai Havertz goal in the sixth minute. It took an Ousmane Dembélé penalty in the 65th to level the score and take the final to extra time for the first time in 10 years.

PSG coach in elite company

By going back to back, Luis Enrique achieved what his good friend Pep Guardiola could not after winning Champions Leagues at Barcelona and Manchester City. Luis Enrique joined Carlo Ancelotti, Bob Paisley, Zinedine Zidane and Guardiola in an elite group of coaches with at least three European Cups.

The next target will be to emulate Madrid’s three in a row under Zidane from 2016-18. And with a starting lineup in Budapest with an average age of less than 24, Luis Enrique has built a team that has the potential to dominate for years.

“It’s crazy, it’s crazy. We’re going to enjoy it first, and after we’re going to work and work again because we want more. We are really hungry. We are a young team, and we know we are really ambitious. So next season we have to go again,” Désiré Doué told broadcaster TNT Sports.

Having waited 22 years to get its hands back on the Premier League trophy, Arsenal’s wait in Europe goes on.

This was its 226th game in the European Cup or Champions League without lifting the trophy. No other team has played so many without being champion.

“First of all you have to go through that pain, digest it and then turn it into fuel and improve and reach a different level because it will demand a different level with the quality that is around Europe,” manager Mikel Arteta said.

“I want to congratulate PSG because they are, in my opinion, the best team in the world. What they are able to do with the ball, individual actions, I haven’t seen it (before).”

Robson writes for the Associated Press.

Police in Budapest are studying camera footage to identify supporters fighting before Saturday’s Champions League final between Arsenal and Paris St-Germain.

A police statement said the incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Footage emerged on social media showing what was said to be about 30 supporters of each club brawling and lighting flares.

“Several fans got into a fight on May 30, 2026, at around 00:20 in Budapest’s 7th district, on Kiraly Street,” a police statement said.

“The BRFK 7th District Police Department has initiated proceedings against unknown perpetrators for the crime of gang violence, within the framework of which the camera recordings are also being analysed.”

Nearly 4,000 police officers will be deployed across the Hungarian capital for the Champions League final, with tens of thousands of fans expected to travel to Budapest without tickets.

On Tuesday, Hungary’s deputy national police chief Zoltan Janos Kuczik said: “This will be the largest single-day police deployment in Hungary’s history.”

It was described as a “high-risk event” with security preparations beginning more than a year ago.

Two Portuguese and a British man were arrested on Friday following a fight at the Champions League fan festival site and charged with disorderly conduct.

Police said a British man who climbed on to the roof of a parked car and damaged the vehicle was also arrested.

Their Spanish coach is the mastermind of this new PSG, built from the ashes of the superstar era which saw Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar the centrepieces of a dysfunctional, ego-ridden outfit who never resembled a team.

Luis Enrique, who also won the Champions League with Barcelona in 2015, ordered his players to park egos at the door – or jettisoned those who would not.

In their place is the perfect combination of brilliant individual skill bolted on to a savage work ethic and defensive solidity that will make them a formidable hurdle for Arsenal to overcome.

And the leader is Marquinhos.

The Brazil centre-half arrived at PSG from Roma in 2013, surviving Luis Enrique’s cull of big names because the coach is wise enough to see a consummate professional and world-class defender when he sees one.

He has formed a superb partnership with the formidable Willian Pacho, who played a key role in keeping Kane under wraps until the England captain’s strike in the dying seconds.

Kvaratskhelia and Dembele combined for the game’s defining moment, while 20-year-old Desire Doue – the young face of the new PSG – tormented Vincent Kompany’s side, coming close on several occasions in the second half.

And yet the glue that held it all together was Marquinhos, still peerless at 31, and with the uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time while exuding calm authority.

To complete the picture, PSG’s midfield of Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz and Joao Neves is the well-oiled engine room linking it all together.

Ruiz’s pass in the build-up to Dembele’s goal was a thing of beauty – but he then reverted to doing the defensive dirty work Luis Enrique demands and which his team seems only too happy to deliver.