Champions League Final in Budapest Saturday: PSG Face Arsenal
The Puskas Arena hosts Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal at 6 p.m. on Saturday, the first final to kick off at 18:00 instead of 21:00, with organisers citing television clash with the NBA Finals.
Thirty-five thousand PSG supporters began moving toward Budapest on Tuesday morning. Seven trains an hour leave Paris on a Schengen corridor through Vienna into Keleti station in the centre of the Hungarian capital.
The Arsenal travelling support, meanwhile, was held up early on Wednesday at the Croatia-Hungary border for routine passport checks. After two hours the English club’s delegation lodged a protest. It was already too late. The convoy of coaches arrived three hours behind schedule.
A 6 p.m. kickoff, the first
On Saturday at 18:00, at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Paris Saint-Germain defend the 2025 title against Arsenal, the new champions of England.
The 18:00 kickoff is new. UEFA decided in February to move the final back from 21:00 to 18:00 because of the television clash with the NBA Finals, which tip off at the same hour in North America.
The tactical battle
PSG enter the final with Ousmane Dembele in the form of his career. The Frenchman has scored 12 goals and added six assists in the Champions League this season. Coach Luis Enrique will most likely set up 4-3-3 with Dembele on the left, Bradley Barcola on the right and Goncalo Ramos through the middle.
Vitinha is the engine in midfield. Across the last four matches, his average pass completion has been 96 percent, the highest of any midfielder in this season’s Champions League.
Arsenal are a completely different script. Mikel Arteta will most likely line up 4-3-3 with Saka centrally and Gabriel Martinelli on the left, while Bukayo Saka has been shifted into the front three on the right.
Ben White played aggressively in the Lisbon semi-final and produced two key overlaps on the right flank. Against Dembele, that is dangerous. The central defensive pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes has conceded only four goals across this entire Champions League campaign.
Stats for the record books
PSG defend the title for the first time in the club’s history. They beat Inter 3-1 in Munich in May 2025.
Arsenal reach the Champions League final for the second time ever. The first was 2006, when they lost 2-1 to Barcelona in Saint-Denis.
The odds and the pick
London bookmakers are pricing:
- Arsenal 2.40
- PSG 2.80
- draw 3.30
The spread is tight. That is reasonable, since the clubs only met in the group stage this season and drew twice (1-1 in Paris, 0-0 in London).
PSG knocked out Liverpool, Bayern and Borussia Dortmund in the knockouts, a brutal path. Arsenal beat Real Madrid in the quarter-finals and Atletico in the semis, also a heavyweight road.
Personally, I give:
- Arsenal 45 percent
- PSG 35 percent
- draw to penalties 20 percent
The reason is that Arsenal carry something PSG cannot control: two English centre-backs in the form of their careers. Saliba has won 84.3 percent of his one-on-one duels in this season’s Champions League, making him the best defender in the competition. If Saliba controls Ramos, PSG are left with just Dembele. For a final, that may not be enough.
Around the stadium
Starting line-ups will be announced at 17:30. Hungarian police have deployed 8,500 officers for stadium security, a record for the Puskas Arena.
Tickets sold out in February:
- cheapest seat €70
- top VIP box €4,800
Club directors and UEFA officials are flying into Budapest on Friday. That means everything is in place for one of the biggest sporting days of the season.
