Match Analysis: PSG vs Inter Milan 5-0 (UEFA Champions League Final) - What Happened in this Final!

Written by Paul Michael Ezeoha 

PSG finally won a first ever UEFA Champions League trophy in their almost 55 years of existence. The League One outfits inscribed their names in history's book by becoming the first team to score over 4 goals in a UCL final by thrashing Inter Milan 5-0. 

From the off till the final whistle, PSG were the domineering force in this tie. The exciting youthful team registered a total of 23 shots with 8 on target compared to Inter's 8 and 1 on target, 3.12 expected goal ratio compared to 0.49 recorded by Inter Milan, while maintaining 59% of ball possession.   

Much accolades have to be accorded to their head coach, Luis Enrique, who brought about great change to the French club since taking charge in July 2023, thus proving why he should be ranked among the elite managers in club football. 

With this achievement, Les Parisien won a quadruple this season- having lifted the French League One, Trophee de Champion and the Coupe de France already. 

So, in this analysis, we shall look at how PSG won this game emphatically and what went wrong for Inter Milan.   

LINE UPS 

Beginning with Inter Milan, they lined up in their traditional 3-5-2 formation on paper. Yan Sommer started in between the sticks, in front of him to provide defensive shade are the three central backs: Alessandro Bastoni, Francisco Acerbi and Benjamin Pavard. The players who made up the five-man midfield include Federico Dimarco, Henrik Mkyteryan, Hakan Calhagnolu, Nicolo Barella and Danzel Dumfries. Up front, Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram were the number nine pairing.

Simone Inzaghi made five changes in this match: Federico Dimarco and Benjamin Paverd came out for Nicola Zalewski and Bisseck, respectively, in the 54th minute. Mkhitaryan and Bisseck who sustained injury few minutes after his introduction into the game, came out for Carlos Agusto and Matteo Darmian, respectively, in the 62nd minute. The final substitution for Inter in the night was Hakan Calhanoglu taken out for Krisjan Asalli in the 70 minute mark.

Inter Milan's 3-5-2 formation (Photo Credit: Canal +)

For PSG, Luis Enrique also made use of all the five substitutions reserved for his side. Bradley Barcola came in for Desire Doue in the 67th minute, Lucas Hernandez was introduced in place of Nuno Mendez in the 78th minute, and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, Fabian Ruiz and Joao Neves were all subbed off for Goncalo Ramos, Senny Malulu and Warren Zaire Emery, in the 84th minute, respectively.       

  

  

PSG's 4-3-3 Formation(Photo Credit: Canal+) 

INTER IN DEFENSE VS PSG IN POSSESSION 

When out of possession, Inter Milan took on a 5-3-2 shape: The backline of five including the three central defenders and the two wing-backs, the three midfielders and the two strikers. 

Like we've seen them do in several matches this season, Inter Milan would aim for rigidity in the defensive phase of the game. With the five-man defence, the goal was to create numerical advantage against PSG's very skilful and pacy wingers, that is to say, to have at least two defenders going up against these wide players when they have the ball. 

Inter Milan's spread out five-man defence (Photo Credit: Canal +) 

On the other hand, the three midfielders and the two wingers formed a central block, with the aim of giving PSG little to no space to play through the central region, due the criticality of this region of the pitch, thus forcing them to make use of the wider area of the pitch- which is a less dangerous zone compared to this central region, as it makes it easy for them to defend against their opponents. 

Here, Inter Milan's midfielders and the two strikers form a mid-block to prevent PSG from progressing through the central region of the pitch (Photo Credit: Canal+) 

So, Inter Milan's game plan was simple: sit back and allow PSG to retain most of the ball possession. The aim is to lure them into committing excessive players to the attack, thereby creating too much gap in their structure, thus making them vulnerable to counter attacks when they lose the ball to Inter. 

     

But things didn't quite go the way Inter Milan wanted it to, as PSG structure and carefulness when in possession ensured they curtailed these counter attacks. 

Now, this brings us to how PSG's in-possession strategy devastated Inter's solid defensive approach to run riot in this game. 

We shall consider two key elements which proved effective in breaking down Inter Milan's compact defensive structure.

The first lie in their overall structure when building play. In as much as PSG's formation on paper was 4-3-3, yet they barely adhered to it. They adopted a flexible build up structure. By flexibility, it connotes that their overall shape in this phase varied on several occasions. But, irrespective of the shape they assumed, two elements were constant: a back three at the defensive line, which could be formed by the two central backs and one of the two full-backs or one of the three midfielders, and players situating themselves in between Inter Milan's defence and midfield lines. 

Here is an explanation for these stratagems: By opting for a back three during build up, PSG aimed to create numerical advantage against Inter Milan's dual strikers, thereby enabling them to easily bypass this first line of defence to then advance play further up the pitch.  Additionally, by having men in between Inter's defensive and midfield lines, the goal for PSG was to have additional players in the central region of the pitch, so as to have domination of the ball in this region. Another advantage of having these players in-between Inter Milan's defensive and midfield lines is to pin their opponents in order to create space for their teammates. 

In the scenarios below, we shall see these stratagems playing out. (Photos Credit: Canal +)

PSG creates a three-man central back, in this instance, one of the three midfielders now plays as the wide left central back. With this numerical advantage against Inter Milan's front two, these defenders were able to by-pass these strikers to then play a pass to one of the midfielders, Vitinha.

On the other hand, Nuno Mendez, the left back, and Ousmane Dembele, now occupy a position in-between Inter Milan's defence and midfield lines. With the positioning of these two players in this central region of the pitch, PSG now has more passing options to progress play through this region.

Now, we can observe how Nuno Mendez's positioning in area of the pitch draws the attention of  Inter Milan's defender, thereby leaving PSG's winger unmarked.    

Vitinha spots this player and loops in a through ball for him. PSG now has an opportunity to attack Inter Milan's goal. 

Again, these stratagems play out in another scenario below. (Photos Credit: Canal +)  

PSG three-man defence enables them to easily by-pass Inter Milan's double strikers, and the presence of players in-between the defence and midfield lines means they now have passing options to advance play through the middle of the pitch.    

Pacho who now plays as the wide left central back, passes to Fabian Ruiz. Also, we can see how Fabian Ruiz's position in this region of the pitch attracts one of Inter Milan's central backs.    

Now, as the central moves to close Fabian Ruiz, space is created at the back. Kvaratskhelia notices this and runs into the vacated space. 

But instead of passing the ball to Kvratskhelia- which if he had done so, would have led to a better goal scoring chance- Fabian plays the ball to Dembele who is in the left half-space.  

Dembele shoots, but he couldn't find the back of the net.  

The second effective strategy employed by PSG in the disruption of Inter Milan's defensive structure, is the deployment of Dembele in the false nine role. Because of this role, Dembele had the freedom to operate in several positions, instead of always operating in the traditional number nine position. So, on several occasions, Dembele dropped to deeper regions of the pitch to aid in the PSG's build up play. Whenever Dembele does so, this usually forces one or more defenders out of their positions who would want to prevent him from receiving the ball. With this, gap would be created in Inter Milan's defence, which PSG would exploit. 

Below, we shall see this stratagem playing out, and how it resulted to PSG's first goals. (Photos Credit: Canal+) 

 

Dembele drops from his number 9 position to the midfield region to help in build-up play. 

He receives the ball from one of the midfielders in pocket of space in this region.   

Here we can observe how Dembele's movement to this deeper region forces one of Inter Milan's defenders to step out of his position in order to close him down. The defender's decision to jump meant that gap would be created in Inter's defence.  

Vitinha notices this space and makes a forward run into it.  Dembele spots this run, and back flicks a through ball for him. 

Vitinha receives the ball 

and passes it to Doue. 

 Doue gets the ball

and places it with precision at the back of the net. 

Also, in the scenarios below, we shall observe how this stratagem led to another goal for PSG. (Photos Credit: Canal +) 

Again, Dembele drops to the midfield region to assist in build-up. 

Nuno Mendez plays him through. 

Now, we can observe that Dembele's deeper positioning attracts the attention of one Inter Milan's defenders, thereby freeing up space for Kvaratskhelia. Dembele further plays a diagonal pass behind Inter Milan's defence for Kvaratskhelia. 

He reached to the ball 

and with fine technique, he placed it into the left angle of the net. 

INTER MILAN DEFENSIVE FLAWS 

This defeat marks the heaviest recorded in the history of the club. It comes as a result of reoccurring defensive flaws from the players in this tie. 

For most of this tie, Inter Milan didn't look like themselves. They lacked that defensive comportment, alertness and effectiveness which have been storied attributes of the club. 

Below, several scenarios of their defensive flaws is shown. 

This flaw is seen in the events that led PSG's first goal. (Photos Credit: Canal +)

Here, we can observe that PSG has two players in-between Inter Milan's 7 players in the box. Now, here is the first defensive problem: Lautaro Martinez fails to close down his opponent at his proximity, Vitinha, on time.  As a result of this, Vitinha has enough freedom when he receives the ball at the edge of Inter Milan's box 18.  

So, he plays a line breaking pass to Doue who receives the ball in large area of space in the midst of these seven Inter Milan players- hence a second defensive problem: the inability to spot and close down their opponent.   

As Doue advances with the ball, Dimarco is tempted to engage in a press, thereby leaving Hakimi without a marker. 

Doue then plays the ball to Hakimi who taps it into Inter's open net. 

Again, PSG's second goal came about as a result of this defensive flaw. (Photos Credit: Canal +)  

Here, while all of Inter Milan's five defending players are fixated to the left-hand flank of the pitch, no one noticed Doue at the right half-space. Dembele spots his free teammate and passes to him.    

Doue who has enough space, strikes one and it takes a heavy deflection off Dimarco to enter inside Inter's net. 

  

CONCLUSION

PSG's victory in this tie comes down to several clever tactics  - a reflection of head coach Luis Enrique's ingenuity- although, Inter Milan's defensive lapses could be said to be another contributing factor for this victory. 

What a remarkable way to bring the 2024/2025 edition of the UEFA Champions League to a close. This tie would go down in the annals of this competition as the most goal-filled final.