European club football's grandest prize has a new home after PSG thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 in Saturday’s final in Munich.
“It’s in the bag, it’s coming home with us to Paris tomorrow,” coach Luis Enrique said. “My first day at the PSG campus I said the ultimate goal was to fill the trophy cabinet. The only trophy missing was the Champions League. Here we have ticked that box.”
As an ecstatic Paris celebrated late into the night, the international press was quick to weigh in on the historic match.
Italy's La Gazetta dello Sport lamented the defeat of what it described as an "unrecognisable" Inter Milan, with one headline declaring the evening's result a "nightmare" for the Italian team.
But one team's nightmare is another team's dream. France's own Le Soir heralded the victory as a vindication of the years of work and wealth that had been poured into preparing PSG for this moment. "The reality is even more beautiful than the dream," one headline read.
British tabloid the Daily Mail had nothing but praise for the French side.
"PSG proved why they are the best team on the planet tonight in Munich, and after years of pain in the competition they crave most, the Parisians finally have it within their grasp," one journalist wrote.
"This game was done 20 minutes in."
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Like much of the international press, the Sun zeroed in on the performance of teenage player Désiré Doué – who scored two of PSG's five goals against the hapless Italians – crediting the young player with "a performance you could hang in the Louvre".
Other coverage focused on the immense wealth poured into the team's triumph by the club's owners Qatar. Spanish sports daily Diario As trumpeted a "2.283-billion-euros Champions", waxing lyrical on Spanish coach Luis Enrique's strategy of putting the bench ahead of star players – backed to the hilt by Qatari billions.
On one thing, the media was unanimous: PSG had won their first Champions League in historic fashion. US sports broadcaster ESPN didn't hold back in its assessment of the defeated Inter's performance, saying that the French team had "humiliated" its Italian opponents.
And in no small part thanks to Doué, whose dazzling performance won sweeping accolades.
"He is the king of Europe, shining in the final against Inter Milan with two goals and an assist," one journalist wrote. Unplayable, unstoppable, unfathomable, un-everything you want."
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
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