For those who stayed in the stands or kept watching on television, it’s an image they’ll never forget. A little girl trying to wave a flag many times her size and struggling to move it until her father came along, held her hands in his and helped her wave it back and forth. Father and child then planted the Barcelona flag in the stadium turf before she went around the stadium sitting on his shoulders.
That was 10 years ago in Berlin, after a team coached by Luis Enrique had beaten Juventus 3-1 in the Champions League final. The little girl was Xana, his daughter who was five at the time. In August 2019, she passed away after some harrowing months battling bone cancer.
More than half a decade on, Enrique is back in the Champions League final, not with his beloved Barcelona but with Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). He has spoken about how meaningful it would be to plant the PSG flag in the turf at Munich’s Allianz Arena if they can win the trophy for the first time—in memory of the daughter he lost, who continues to be his inspiration.
At one point this season, when PSG had just one win from their first five Champions League games, it seemed like a fantasy that they’d even reach the final. But three resounding victories to close out the group stage—including a come-from-behind 4-2 win over Manchester City—propelled them into the knockouts.
Since the Round of 16, they’ve dispatched three of England’s best teams—Liverpool, the defending champions, Aston Villa, and Arsenal, who had dismantled Real Madrid in the previous round. Enrique’s PSG is a radically different beast from the star-obsessed sides of the past decade, which often lacked cohesion despite individual brilliance.
In fact, before his first Champions League game in charge in 2023, Enrique spoke of the need for “ambition, but not obsession”. The days of PSG trying to buy every superstar have been replaced by a more thoughtful strategy that respects the coach’s vision and plugs gaps sensibly.
Where once their stars rarely tracked back, Enrique’s players press ferociously from the first minute to the last. The man who replaced Kylian Mbappé on the left, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, typifies this new ethos—he’s such a tireless worker that he often tracked back to play like an auxiliary left-back, notably when up against Bukayo Saka and Arsenal.
As for Ousmane Dembele, he looks nothing like the player who scored just 28 goals across five previous club seasons. This campaign, he already has 33. Behind him, the midfield trio of Fabian Ruiz, Vitinha, and Joao Neves appear almost press-proof with the way they operate. In goal, Gianluigi Donnarumma—formerly of Inter’s rivals AC Milan—has become a near-impenetrable wall against the likes of Liverpool, Villa, and Arsenal.
For Inter, this feels like the end of a cycle. Most of the squad played in the 2023 Champions League final, but with strong rumours that coach Simone Inzaghi is set to leave for Al-Hilal after the game, this is perhaps the last shot at glory for this group.
Should they fall short, it will extend Italy’s Champions League drought to 16 years matching the barren run between 1969 and 1985. Once again, the onus will fall on Lautaro Martínez, the talismanic Argentine striker, and a solid defensive unit that must contain PSG’s electric front three.
Yann Sommer was inspirational in goal during the semi-final against Barcelona, and he’ll likely be a busy man once again. History offers a flicker of hope for Inter: all four previous finals in Munich were won by teams lifting the trophy for the first time—Nottingham Forest (1979), Marseille (1993), Borussia Dortmund (1997), and Chelsea (2012).
But whatever unfolds, expect Luis Enrique to look skyward before kick-off—toward the little star he hopes will guide him to another title, a decade after she first surveyed the world from his shoulders.
PSG Likely XI: Donnarumma – Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Mendes – Neves, Vitinha, Ruiz – Doue, Dembele, Kvaratskhelia (4-3-3)
Inter Milan Likely XI: Sommer – Bisseck, Acerbi, Bastoni – Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco – Thuram, Martínez (3-5-2)
RevSportz Prediction: PSG 2 – Inter 1
For more exciting articles, follow RevSportz.