The Preview: Champions League Final
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What’s the build-up and context for Arsenal vs PSG in the 2026 Champions League final?
The Athletic FC. Welcome to the preview from The Athletic FC. It's the show where we get you set for the weekend's action. This week we are of course focusing on the Champions League final as Premier League winners Arsenal face the holders Paris Saint-Germain. And on board today, two appropriately appointed experts. Tom Williams with us. How are you doing, Tom? Very good, thanks, Matt. How are you? Yeah, really good, thanks. Looking forward to Saturday's game. And Adrian Clarke, couldn't be anybody else, could it, for a preview featuring Arsenal.
Clarke, how are the nerves? All right. Yeah, now I feel good. I feel excited at the prospect of Arsenal making history. Might not happen, but the thought of it maybe happening is very exciting. All right. Well, it's our sole focus today.
So let's get to the main event. Champions League final in Budapest. Luis Enrique's PSG aiming to go back to back while Arsenal are looking for their first ever success in the competition 20 years after heartbreak in Paris. And what's the mood like then in North London do you think Adrian having wrapped up the Premier League title still celebrating that one or full focus on Saturday?
Oh no, full focus now. We've had our little moment of celebrating and it was pretty joyous, I must admit. But no, look, the players, they'd have been prepping this pre-Palace because obviously they had the opportunity to rest and rotate against Crystal Palace on the last day. So I think they'd have been working on the PSG game for a while now. And look... You hope that this is the first of many Champions League finals, but the truth is it might be the only one. And I think from the players' perspective, they'll be fully up for this and determined to grab the opportunity and to bring it home and to really make themselves club legends forever. I mean, this would be regarded... I would imagine, as Arsenal's greatest ever season.
And maybe, you know, the best team in Arsenal's history. Certainly the best squad if they were to beat PSG on Saturday. So, yeah, look, it's all there in front of them. And I don't think that anybody sees this as a free hit. This is about, you know, putting your own stamp on Arsenal's history.
And what about in Paris then, Tom? I mean, got to be feeling confident after winning the competition so comprehensively last season.
Yeah, I think they are. You know, preparations have been pretty much ideal. You know, they'll be fairly well rested. They should be at full strength. They've been there and done it before. I mean, PSG have had a very curious season, a very long season. Obviously, last season stretched on deep into the summer because of the Club World Cup. They had a three-week break after that, no pre-season whatsoever, straight back into competitive action with UEFA Super Cup against Tottenham and then straight into the Ligue 1 campaign. And they had a really difficult first half of the season, awful lot of injuries. And you didn't really see much evidence of the PSG, the all-conquering team that we saw sweep to glory in the Champions League last season.
But what has happened since the turn of the year is that the injury picture has cleared up. Most of the key players are back in form and we've seen them producing those exceptional performances in the knockout phase, similar to what they did last season. And as much as winning the Champions League for the first time has long felt like PSG's Everest, like the only thing they needed to tick off to achieve full legitimacy as a modern super club, I think very quickly after winning it, thoughts turned to the possibility of winning it again. A lot of talk at PSG about doing le back-to-back, as they refer to it in France. And you speak to people around the club and the players and the coaching staff and the whole organisation have been geared towards that right from the start of the season.
So as much as last year felt like this is what it's all been building to, there is also a knowledge that you become one of those very rare teams to successfully defend the European Cup and that is a different kind of history.
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