UEFA Champions League

Paris police were attacked, shops in the French capital were vandalized and 158 people were arrested after Paris Saint-Germain's loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, the interior minister and police said on Monday.

"The savagery of certain delinquents from last night: 16 members of the police forces injured, 12 shops attacked, around 15 cars vandalized," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter.

Bayern Munich's journey to the Champions League title required “brutal” mental strength and focus during a rollercoaster season that saw a major team overhaul.

Sunday's 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain not only clinched a sixth European crown for Bayern, it also saw them become the first team to win all of their Champions League matches in a season.

THEY’VE DONE IT!

Ander Herrera, the 31-year-old midfielder who arrived at PSG last summer from Manchester United on a free transfer, knows a thing or two about the French club’s struggle for a paradigm shift following one ignominious European exit after another in recent years.

He was, after all, a part of the United team that unceremoniously dumped PSG out of the Champions League in the Round of 16 last season. 

The 2019-20 UEFA Champions League final was a nerve-racking, back-and-forth contest that would’ve been greatly improved by both a PSG goal and fans in the stands. While it’s impossible to understand what happened to the finishing abilities of Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Ángel Di María in Lisbon, we all know exactly why supporters weren’t allowed inside Estádio da Luz.

Bayern Munich’s 1-0 victory over PSG in Sunday’s Champions League final brought a close to some long-drawn-out storylines that’ll largely return in 58 days time with the start of next season’s group stage. 

With all the money spent by Paris Saint-Germain on this lavish, decade-long Champions League project, it’s a sensational piece of irony that Bayern Munich’s game-winning goal in Sunday’s final was scored by a PSG youth product, the Parisian Kingsley Coman.

Former England captain Wayne Rooney believes Paris Saint-Germain has the speed and skill to exploit Bayern Munich's high defensive line in Sunday's Champions League final and punish them in a way Lyon could not.

Lyon forwards Memphis Depay and Karl Toko Ekambi missed gilt-edged opportunities in the opening 16 minutes of a 3-0 defeat to Bayern in the semifinal on Wednesday and Rooney has warned that PSG's front three of Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Ángel Di María will not be so wasteful.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says the single-game knockout format, used in the Champions League this year from the quarterfinal onwards, has produced more exciting football than the usual two-legged games and could be revisited in the future.

The format was changed in order to allow the competition to be completed in a shorter time-span after the COVID-19 pandemic halted play for several months across Europe in March.

Eight clubs headed to Lisbon and the final will be contested later on Sunday, pitting Bayern Munich against Paris St Germain.