Paris in the spring crushes hopes of eternal glory for valiant Arsenal
Paris in the spring is so utterly captivating - and so is the City of Light’s beguiling football team who beat valiant Arsenal to reach the Champions League final
I’m too gutted to share anything but my Morning Star match report from the press box at the Parc De Princes in Paris on Wednesday evening.
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Paris in the spring crushes hopes of eternal glory for valiant Arsenal
PSG 2-1 Arsenal (3-1 on agg): Champions League report by Layth Yousif at the Parc De Princes.
Paris in the spring is utterly captivating - and so is the City of Light’s beguiling football team who beat valiant Arsenal to reach the Champions League final on a night of high drama.
The French capital is beautiful this time of year, but Arsenal will not have a merry month of May to enjoy, after Paris Saint-Germain edged out the Gunners to shatter their dreams of European glory, and make it an unwanted five defeats at the semi-final stage of a major competition for Mikel Arteta.
Despite a late Bukayo Saka goal, Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi scored for PSG to beat the visitors 2-1 at the Parc De Princes (3-1 on aggregate) to set up a Champions League final against Inter Milan in Munich at the end of this month.
Speaking after the match, a crestfallen Arteta insisted: "100% I don't think there's been a better team [than Arsenal] in the competition from what I have seen, but we are out.
“This competition is about the boxes and in both boxes are the strikers and the goalkeepers and theirs was the best in both games.”
Amid a relentlessly raucous atmosphere at the evocative Parc De Princes, a brutalist concrete bowl, but one with a fervent soul, the passionate home support sang, and bounced, and chanted, lit flares, and unveiled professional-looking colourful Tifo, while continually exhorting their heroes to a longed-for place in the showpiece final of this cruel tournament, as the Gunners hopes of a trip to Munich ended in despair after a long, but now ultimately fruitless season.
Defeat in front of 47,511 fevered fans in a prosaic part of south-west Paris on Wednesday evening meant Arteta has now failed to win eight semi-finals, losing six of them, with the ‘nearly men’ tag about to be unwillingly affixed to this illustrious club.
However, Arsenal can be proud of their courageously attacking performance, which, on another night, in another city, in another dream, could have seen Arteta’s brave charges lead 3-0 after the first 20 minutes, following a ferocious start that underlined the fact that PSG’s Italian keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma is simply world class.
Speaking after the pulsating clash, Arteta added: "Firstly, congratulations to PSG for reaching the final.
"When you look at the two games their best player on the pitch has been the goalkeeper, he has been the difference for them in the tie. We were very close, much closer than the result showed but unfortunately we are out. I am very proud of the players.
"After 20 minutes it should have been 3-0. There is something extra you need to go your way in the competition and it didn't. We were very close and for long periods of both games we were much better than them, but we are not there and that has to hurt.”
As pre-match noise levels reached a crescendo following the unfurling of a giant Tifo (powers-that-be at Arsenal please take note after last week’s underwhelming effort in N5 that led to ridicule) it was the North Londoners who started savagely, forcing the giant Donnarumma to make world class saves from Gabi Martinelli, Martin Odegaard to deny Arteta’s willing team. The early defiance coming after Declan Rice’s header flew agonisingly wide in the opening moments.
Yet Luis Enrique’s side had reached this stage by beating Aston Villa and Liverpool in the knockout stage, as well as Manchester City in the league phase, and had the savvy and nous to regroup.
Despite missing their talisman - and possible future Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé, who started on the bench, following a minor hamstring issue, PSG were powered by the quality of Ruiz and Hakimi, Nuno Mendes and João Neves, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Désiré Doué.
A line-up of such mesmerisingly attractive talent as befits the city that boasts the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Cathédrale Notre Dame, and the ever-astonishingly iconic structure that is the Tour de Eiffel.
On 27 minutes, following Thomas Partey’s attempt to clear, Ruiz - the underrated foil for Rodri during Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph, hit a superb strike that evaded David Raya to put the hosts 1-0 up. Cue pandemonium among the home support as Arsenal went 2-0 down on aggregate.
It was to prove an impossible journey back from there for Arteta and his men.
While Donnarumma produced another stunning save to deny Saka, it was Raya who saved Vitinha’s insipid second half penalty.
The chance coming after referee Felix Zwayer was summoned to the dreaded monitor to think again - despite not a single PSG player appealing for a spot-kick following Hakimi’s shot that flicked Myles Lewis-Skelly’s hand. Raya’s save was to become irrelevant when the lively Hakimi made it 2-0 for the hosts shortly afterwards.
Saka scored soon after to make it 2-1 and boost hopes of an unlikely comeback, but missed a good chance moments later, as the Parisians ran out deserved winners, leaving a number of Arsenal players in tears at the final whistle.
Speaking after the match, a disappointed captain Odegaard reflected: "We gave it a proper go. We started the game really well. We were on the front foot, had the momentum, a few big chances but in the end it wasn't enough. Between the boxes we did well inside the two over the two games we weren't good enough. Credit to their goalkeeper who made amazing saves. It wasn't enough and that's painful.
“It is a massive disappointment, but we must stay strong and together. Take the lessons, take the pain and use it to come back stronger."
With Arsenal now struggling to make second place in the Premier League table for the third successive year, progress appears to be stalling under Arteta.
Not least with an unwanted trip to Arne Slot's Liverpool on Sunday to applaud the new league champions at their Anfield home.
Yet, there is every reason to feel positive if sporting director Andrea Berta can bolster the squad this summer.
Berta surely understanding that the forward line requires a world class striker, while perhaps drafting in another defensive midfielder to help the Stakhanovite Rice prosper, and maybe adding another defender or two - all the while tying up the likes of William Saliba and of course Saka to new, and deserved lucrative contracts. If achieved Arsenal will be a force to be reckoned with again next season.
Even if, on a cruel Paris night, amid the hurt and crushed hopes, it may not feel like it.
As Rice said plaintively after the match: "Sometimes you have to lose a few in order to win and overcome setbacks to grow as a player and as a group.
“We're absolutely gutted but this doesn't define us for sure. We'll be back stronger.”
