Matvey and Khvicha against the British

On May 30, in the final of the main club tournament of the Old World, PSG will clash with Arsenal in Budapest.

The current Champions League tournament has turned out to be one of the most memorable in the last five years. There were many great matches and sensations. Who expected agility from the Norwegian Bodo-Glimt, who knocked out last year's tournament finalist Inter Milan in the playoff round?

Napoli, Ajax and PSV never made it to the knockout matches. The most powerful Barcelona with Lamin Yamal, Rafinha and Lewandowski completed their journey in the quarterfinals. Real Madrid, which won the very first European Cup exactly 70 years ago, also failed to please its fans. At the stage of the 1/8 finals, Pep Guardiola, who left the almighty Manchester City a week ago, also ingloriously ended his British period. But last year’s Champions League winner PSG, who didn’t exert much effort in the group round, and Arsenal, whom only the most devoted fans were certainly waiting for in the final, made it to the decisive battle...

Although the Gunners initially won eight out of eight matches with a goal difference of 23-4. However, experts assured that in the playoffs Arsenal would stall, fail and, as usual, be eliminated by the first serious opponent. It’s just that Mikel Arteta’s team was lucky with the net: in the spring, in fact, they didn’t meet a single grandee on their way. And the Londoners, albeit with difficulty, defeated Bayer Leverkusen, Sporting Lisbon and Atletico Madrid in turn. And along the way, they also managed to win the English Championship 22 years later. And now they will finally try to take the trophy, which is not yet in the club museum...

Their opponent, to the delight of the sheikhs who own the team, took the prestigious big-eared cup 12 months ago. And now he dreams of saving it. Unlike Arsenal, PSG did not give their best in the old-world competition in the autumn and winter (11th place), but approached the relegation fights with all seriousness. And he beat Monaco in the extra round, then he steamrolled through Chelsea and Liverpool, and in the semi-finals, in the most beautiful confrontation of this draw, he washed away Bayern, which was predicted to win the final victory...

It is especially pleasant that the Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who scored 10 goals and gave 6 assists in 15 meetings, and the Russian Matvey Safonov, who deserved the kindest epithets, effectively took part in all these overseas battles. If last year the Krasnodar graduate played only two duels in the Champions League and sat behind the Italian Donnarumma, then this season Matvey Evgenievich, having won the competition against the Frenchman Chevalier, turned into the main goalkeeper of the Parisians by Christmas.

He saved four consecutive penalties in the battle for the Intercontinental Cup, and generally defended the PSG goal quite confidently, playing 26 matches in all tournaments.

Moreover, in the Champions League playoffs, he kept his “house” intact three times in a row. He also did not miss the key match of the domestic championship against Lens and won the title of French champion for the second time in a row. And the newspaper L'Equipe recently included him in the top ten best goalkeepers on the continent.

On Saturday, Matvey may become the first Russian to twice reach the cool European award. Let me remind you that before him the following characters touched the honorary trophy once:

• Igor Dobrovolsky (“Olympic”) in 1993,

• Vladimir But (Borussia) in 1997,

• Dmitry Alenichev (Porto) in 2004,

• Denis Cheryshev (Real Madrid) in 2016.

Moreover, only Dmitry Anatolyevich showed up in the final battle so far 22 years ago, hitting the third ball into the Monegasque net...

Well, PSG itself, led by Luis Enrique, if successful, will come close to achieving Real Madrid, which from 2016 to 2018 did not give the silver prize to anyone.

...It is noteworthy that Arsenal also has a goalkeeper who can go down in history. This is Kepa Arrizabalaga. He has already won the Champions League with Chelsea and Real Madrid. So: with three different clubs in this tournament, not a single goalkeeper has ever won (and of the field players, only Clarence Seedorf managed a rare hat-trick). True, Arrizabalaga is considered an iron reserve, but, as they say, you can’t erase the words from a song. How can you not erase words from an article by The Guardian newspaper, in which Matvey Safonov was called “the weakest link in the well-coordinated PSG team...

Well, what about Arsenal? In case you forgot, the Gunners reached the final without a single defeat (11 wins and three draws).

But how can one not remember that in 2006 Arsenal, led by the legendary Arsene Wenger, also went through the entire competition without a single misfire. And he didn’t even miss a single goal in the playoffs. And then, in the main battle, he got his ears kicked by Barcelona. And since then, Londoners have watched the golden performances only on television for two decades.

Moreover, a year ago it was PSG who set the barrier for the Gunners in the semi-finals...

If we discard all the parallels, goalkeeper “puzzles”, as well as the fact that both teams are coached by Spanish specialists, it should be noted that the French team is dynamic and tactically flexible, while the British preach extremely strict football, relying on set pieces, from which they score almost a third of all their goals. An important fact: Arsenal's leaders are all in full combat readiness. But for PSG, with a high degree of probability, the main defender Achraf Hakimi will not play and the 2025 Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembele, whom the neutral spectators of the Puskas Arena in Budapest are probably dreaming of seeing, still has not fully recovered from injury.

By the way, speculators offer the cheapest tickets costing 70 euros for 5.5 thousand, and for seats in the first category they demand as much as 20,000. And still, a full house is expected at the stadium in the capital of Hungary today.

The mood of the coaching staff

Mikel Arteta

Arsenal coach

“By defeating Atlético in the semi-finals, we made history. But the real story for Arsenal will only begin with Saturday's triumph.

Luis Enrique

PSG coach

— History is created not by the first, but by the second trophy. I don’t think about the past and dream of winning the Cup again. Arsenal are a great opponent.

Statistics

FINALS WITH PSG

• 2020 Estádio da Luz Stadium (Lisbon). Bayern - PSG. 1:0

• 2025 Allianz Arena Stadium (Munich) . PSG - Inter. 5:0

FINALS WITH ARSENAL PARTICIPATION
2006 . Stadium "Stade de France" (Saint-Denis). Barcelona - Arsenal. 2:1

2026 Puskas Arena Stadium (Budapest). PSG - Arsenal. ?

The live broadcast on the Okko service will begin on May 30 at 19.00 Moscow time