Inter, end of the dream. The Champions League 2024 / 25 is the PSG, capable of triumphing in the final with the largest margin in the history of the competition. Monaco, simply, there was no match, despite the predictions the day before, which gave the French as favorites, but only by a small margin. Instead, more than a final, it was a lesson in football, with a team that dominated the field from start to finish, facing another team so bad it appeared unrecognizable. A defeat against PSG is acceptable, but a gap like that is not: Inter will have to think long and hard about the reasons for such a debacle, because if it is true that the judgment on the season does not change (at least not 100%), it is also true that starting again after a year with "zero titles" will require a lot of work, from all points of view.
PSG – Inter 5-0: French devastating with Doué, Hakimi, Kvara and Mayulu, Nerazzurri humiliated and never in the game
No Inter fan could ever have imagined a such a bitter epilogue, just as not even the most optimistic Parisian would have dared to dream of such a resounding triumph. Five nil, a football lesson signed by PSG, ahistoric humiliation for the Nerazzurri, knocked out and sent home without appeal. Luis Enrique's boys have torn apart not only the Inter defense, but also its certainties, its pride, its identity. A "manita" that weighs like a millstone in the history of the Milanese club, which returns home as a finalist ... but with a negative record that burns almost as much as the missed trophy.
From start to finish, PSG dominated every inch of the pitch. Not even a glimmer of the solid and proud Inter that had overcome a thousand obstacles to reach the final. The Nerazzurri seemed small, disoriented, helpless. And the gap, instead of closing with the passing of the minutes, became deeper and deeper, until it became an unbridgeable abyss. Five goals conceded, no one in the history of the Champions League finals had ever suffered such a defeat. Inter now holds this unenviable record, and cannot even cling to the consolation of bad luck. The result, very bitter, is the faithful mirror of what happened on the field.
Il PSG enchanted: no more stickers and theatrical stunts, but a real, solid, brilliant project directed by Luis Enrique, who has shaped a young, fast, lethal team. Hakimi, the ex, broke the ice, but the young prodigies were the ones who spoke out loud: Vitinha and Joao Neves wove football like two veterans; Doué, born in 2005, sent the Nerazzurri defense into a tailspin with an assist and a sensational brace. And to make sure nothing was missing, Mayulu (2006) also took care of closing the scoreboard after the goal of 4-0 by Kvaratskhelia, the January purchase who gave a new face to PSG after the group stage. From the ashes of the initial 15th place in the group to the European triumph: Paris did what no one expected. They silenced critics, overturned predictions and, above all, overwhelmed a big team like Inter in a final destined to go down in history.
And Inter? The path remains, of course, an extraordinary journey towards the final act, but also a very heavy defeat not only in terms of the score. Because losing a final hurts, but collapsing like this, without ever giving the feeling of being able to react, risks leaving deep scars. And maybe, who knows, marking the end of a cycle, just when it was thought the time had come to reap the rewards. And instead, the one who took it all was Luis Enrique's PSG, at the second treble of his career, the first in the history of the Parisians.
Inzaghi: “There is disappointment, but the defeat does not erase the path. The future? We will see…”
“I am proud of these guys for what they have done in this journey, we have certainly found a team stronger than us, who deserved to win – the bitter comment from Inzaghi -. We approached the game badly, conceded a goal and then we pulled away, making their job easier. The defeat makes us very bitter, but it doesn't erase the journey we've made. We all definitely had to do better tonight, me first. No titles, but very good all the same, I told the boys that they all have to keep their heads up. In the first half we didn't play as we knew how, they always got to the second balls first, they cleaned them up well. Unfortunately, the result was wide, we had to play better technically. We conceded goals that we had never conceded in this journey. My future? We'll see in the next few days with the managers, after two finals lost in three years there's too much disappointment and bitterness to think about it. I'll talk about it calmly with the club, who were close to us again tonight despite the great bitterness".
Marotta: “A negative evening, but my assessments of Inzaghi don’t change”
“A bad evening, the opponent outclassed us in everything – the analysis of the President Marotta -. A deserved defeat, but one that doesn't negatively affect the season. We played against a very strong team and we're sorry for the performance. I thank the many fans who came here to support us. It was difficult to get this far, we got here with great merit. We fell with great fragility, but I have to thank our players and our coach. In 59 games we have shown that we deserve these stages, now a parenthesis closes. No evaluation of Inzaghi changes, we'll see him next week. He still has a year left on his contract and he has shown that he is up to the task, it's not a negative evening that erases all his merits".
Luis Enrique: “I worked hard to lower my blood pressure. My daughter? She is always with me”
“My concern this last week was to manage the emotions and the pressure of a city that had not yet won the Champions League – he explained Luis Enrique -. I tried to lower it to let the boys arrive calm to play this match and play a good game. Inter is a top-level team, but we were good at pressing and Dembélé was extraordinary. His work helped us a lot to score easily. We built this team to try a new path after Mbappé's farewell. We have involved top-level players, trying to develop the players we had in the squad, everyone has grown. The dedication to my daughter? She has been with me since the moment she left, she did it with her body but not with everything else. It is not a victory or a defeat that changes my feelings”.
