StGermain

Some of the numbers for individual players are eye-catching.

Les Parisiens’ club captain Marquinhos has started 14 of those European games – the same number of total appearances he made in the league (11 starts, three as a substitute).

From 13 February to 19 April, the decorated Brazil defender didn’t see a single minute of league action, remaining an unused sub in seven successive games. He played every minute of the holders’ six Champions League fixtures in that timeframe.

Ballon d’Or holder Ousmane Dembele completed 90 minutes in the league only once in 22 appearances. Fellow forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia played for the duration just twice in 28 matches.

On 12 May, Dembele controversially won the Ligue 1 player-of-the-season award for the second year in a row, registering 10 goals and seven assists.

He started a mere 11 league games (nine at the time of the award), featuring in 22 out of a possible 34 overall, although a succession of injury problems did cause him to miss 10 of those.

Luis Enrique’s policy of rotation – he used 28 players in league fixtures versus Arteta’s 25 – did come at some cost, albeit not a telling one.

Three of their six league defeats – against Marseille in September, Monaco in November and Lyon in April – came immediately after Champions League ties.

Midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery played more league minutes than anyone else in the PSG squad with 2,453. Six Arsenal players clocked up more than that.

The notion that England’s top flight is the best in Europe is not purely down to Anglocentric bias; Uefa’s association club coefficients rank the Premier League as the continent’s top division, with Ligue 1 fifth.

It should be said that PSG played a mammoth 58 games last season en route to a superb four-trophy haul that included a maiden Champions League success in which they overcame Arsenal 3-1 on aggregate in the semi-final. The Ligue 1 campaign is also four games shorter than the Premier League’s, owing to its 18-team format.

Regardless, Arsenal’s key players have undoubtedly been putting a shift in. Goalkeeper David Raya had played every minute of the season until he was rested on the final day against Crystal Palace with the title already in the bag.

Declan Rice, William Saliba, Gabriel and Martin Zubimendi have also started at least 30 league games for the north London club, something only Zaire-Emery can say for their opponents (the Gunners’ Jurrien Timber, who has been injured since mid-March and remains a huge doubt for the final, still managed more minutes than him).

Of the 10 players with the most league minutes for either club this season, just two, Zaire-Emery and Illia Zabarnyi, play for the Paris outfit.

London City Lionesses are an ambitious club under owner Michele Kang and had a steady debut campaign in the WSL, finishing sixth after eight wins from 22 matches.

Sources at the club say an agreement with Earps has not yet been made, but they remain optimistic about their summer business.

Eder Maestre’s side have been linked with several players including Barcelona defender Mapi Leon and England winger Beth Mead, who announced her departure from Arsenal this week amid additional interest from Manchester City.

Earps is one of a number of big-name players potentially available on a free deal this summer, with Arsenal’s Mead and Katie McCabe leaving, Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas yet to sign a new contract, Sam Kerr departing Chelsea and Manchester City top scorer Khadija Shaw rejecting contract renewal proposals.

During her time in England, Earps became one of the country’s most recognised and influential players, though her book – released in November – caused controversy and dominated headlines in the media for several weeks.

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.

The tone was set for a dazzling European encounter when both sets of fans unfurled giant tifos before kick-off – PSG’s was emblazoned with the words ‘the conquest of Europe’, while the visitors’ banner urged their side to ‘give everything’.

In a chaotic opening 45 minutes at the Parc des Princes, both sides did just that.

It was fitting the two top-scoring sides in the Champions League this season put five goals on the scoreboard in a mesmerising, end-to-end opening period.

Harry Kane’s penalty was cancelled out by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s clinical finish, before Joao Neves’ glancing header and Michael Olise’s moment of individual brilliance left the sides level.

Many will suggest the PSG penalty, awarded after Bayern defender Alphonso Davies was deemed to have handled an Ousmane Dembele cross in the box, was harsh. Dembele calmly converted to give PSG a 3-2 lead at the break.

But the controversial incident was ultimately overshadowed by what pundits called one of the greatest halves of football they had ever witnessed.

Former England captain Alan Shearer said on Amazon Prime: “I can’t stop smiling at how open and bonkers this game is.

“It’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever been to. Two teams that believe in their own ability to outscore their opponent.”

The chaos continued after the break with PSG building a three-goal cushion, again through Kvaratskhelia and Dembele, leaving some to wonder if the outcome had been settled.

But Bayern were unwilling to let the chance of a first Champions League title since 2020 get away from them as they fought back in fearsome fashion.

Goals from Dayot Upamecano and Diaz were met with stunned silence from the home fans and no further response from the PSG players as the hosts finished with a slim advantage.

“I have been managing for more than 15 years, and I have to say it was the most exciting [match],” added Luis Enrique.

“It is important to show that that is the way to try to play football. OK, we are not happy as a coach when you concede four goals, but I’m happy because we won.”

It was the first time in any major European semi-final that both sides had scored at least four goals, and just the second time in a Champions League knockout match after Chelsea and Liverpool drew 4-4 in the 2008-09 quarter-final.

With PSG netting 43 goals and Bayern 42, it was also the first time two teams have each scored more than 40 times in a Champions League campaign.