PSG defend Champions League, beat Arsenal on penalties
The final in Budapest was settled on penalties as PSG won 4-3 after the match at the Puskas Arena finished 1-1.
- PSG beat Arsenal 4-3 on penalties in the Champions League final after the match finished 1-1.
- The game was played at the Puskas Arena in Budapest in front of 61,035 spectators.
- Havertz put Arsenal ahead in the 6th minute and Dembele equalised from the spot in the 65th.
- The Paris club thus retained the title it won the previous season.
When Vitinha walked past the back boards at the Puskas Arena, the ball in one hand and a medal round his neck, the scoreboard already showed what had looked impossible half an hour earlier. Arsenal had led, had played the better football, and were going home with nothing. Sixty-one thousand people in Budapest watched the final decided from the spot, where the neatly played passages of the match no longer count.
The Parisians retained their trophy. PSG beat Arsenal 4-3 on penalties in the Champions League final after 90 minutes plus extra time ended 1-1. The match was played on May 30, 2026, at the Puskas Arena in front of 61,035 spectators, with German referee Daniel Siebert in charge.
Kai Havertz had put Arsenal ahead as early as the 6th minute, giving the London side exactly the start they wanted. The ball stayed in their half for long spells, and then in the 65th minute Ousmane Dembele brought PSG back into the game from the penalty spot to make it 1-1. Nothing more was scored after that, all the way to the shootout.
What decided the final?
The penalty spot, as it so often does when two teams cannot be separated. Eberechi Eze and Gabriel Magalhaes missed for Arsenal, two kicks that opened the door for Paris. PSG had a slip of their own, Nuno Mendes failing to convert, but it was not enough to revive the Londoners. The final score was 4-3 on penalties, and the trophy stays in Paris.
Vitinha was named man of the match, the man who held the middle of the pitch together both when Arsenal pressed and when the ball needed calming down. He did not score, he was not in the headline photo of a goal, but he was the reason PSG did not collapse after that early concession.
What comes next for both clubs?
PSG go into the summer as back-to-back champions of Europe, a status few hold in the modern game. Arsenal leave the final with a feeling worse than a defeat over 90 minutes: they were the better side for much of the match and did not turn it into a trophy. Penalties are cruel to the team that led.
Were Arsenal closer to the title than the penalty scoreline suggests?
