The strange Champions League final and Lamine Yamal's broken dream

The strange Champions League final

There are plenty of reasons to ensure that the Champions League final between Inter Milan and PSG promises to be the most exciting and novel in recent years. There is a fact that surprises many people: For the first time in 21 years, the final match of the Champions League will not see the presence of representatives from England, Spain or Germany.

The Champions League final between PSG and Inter Milan was a strange match (Photo: UEFA).

The last time fans witnessed this was the match between Porto and Monaco in the 2003-04 season. But clearly, in many aspects, the final between Inter and Paris Saint Germain (PSG) was a much more upgraded version of the "fairy tale" scenario of 2004.

Another reason for the strangeness of this year's final is that this is the first time Inter have faced PSG in history. That means that all their knowledge of each other is almost zero. That creates the novelty and attraction of the most anticipated match of the year.

It is a fact that Inter and PSG are not the strongest teams. According to Opta's assessment after the draw for the group stage of this season's Champions League, Inter are the third favorites (after Man City and Real Madrid), while PSG are ranked 9th.

During the group stage, PSG even dropped to 25th place (out of the group). The Paris team only truly woke up when they won all three of their final group stage matches. After that, fans witnessed a complete version of PSG through each match.

On their way back from the group stage, the Paris team defeated Man City 4-2. They then eliminated the strongest team in the group stage, Liverpool, defeated the phenomenon of the tournament, Aston Villa, before defeating Arsenal. It can be seen that coach Luis Enrique's team has truly made the English people admire.

Compared to the time of reaching the 2020 Champions League final, PSG did not have world- class stars, but now they have become a comprehensive team. The Athletic commented: "PSG is a nearly perfect team. They have endurance, speed and the ability to control the game rhythmically in each area. Unity makes the team's strength, it is the sum of collective strength, in both attack and defense."

PSG overcame many storms to reach the Champions League final (Photo: Getty).

Ironically, after many years of spending money to seek titles, PSG is finding success thanks to the youth from the training center, with many outstanding stars such as Zaire-Emery, Barcola, Doue... Besides, PSG also recruited many "right person, right time" stars such as Kvaratskhelia, Dembele, Hakimi, Vitinha or Fabian Ruiz.

The architect of PSG’s success is Luis Enrique, who won the Champions League with Barcelona exactly 10 years ago. Since then, the Spaniard has struggled to find his footing. The strange thing is that at the end of last year, coach Luis Enrique was almost fired because of conflicts with PSG’s star players.

Until now, when mentioning Luis Enrique's revolution in a short time, many people still feel surprised. But the most important thing is that the Spanish coach has put PSG on the right track and nothing can stop them. PSG is the only team in Europe with the chance to win a historic treble.

Inter Milan is also a strange team, no less than PSG. They were once "abandoned" by Italians because of their foreign culture, once considered "redundant" in the domination of Juventus and AC Milan, but above all, Inter is the team with the most Italian characteristics at this time.

No team in the Champions League has a better defence than Inter. In their first 10 games of the season (eight group games, two knockout games), the Nerazzurri have conceded just two goals. Inter’s goals conceded per game is a binary sequence: 0-0-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-1.

However, the strange thing is that the Milan team has surpassed two of Europe's top teams, Bayern Munich and Barcelona, ​​thanks to... the strength of their attack. In the last 4 matches, coach Inzaghi's team has scored 11 goals. Scoring nearly 3 goals per match against Bayern Munich and Barcelona is almost unthinkable for any team. However, Inter has done the unthinkable.

That said, Inter are a formidable force. When they need to be pragmatic, they are willing to be brutally pragmatic, stifling the will of all opponents. But when they need to attack, the Nerazzurri can "melt" the best defenses in Europe.

Inter Milan is a team with a lot of Italian character but also plays very modern (Photo: Getty).

Inter's squad for this season's Champions League final is essentially unchanged from the one they played in the 2023 final (against Man City). There were only two changes, with Marcus Thuram replacing Edin Dzeko in attack and Yann Sommer replacing Andre Onana in goal. But remember, back in 2023, many people thought that Inter's squad was "out of date" and had reached the end of its success.

However, many players whose careers seemed to have ended, such as Mkhitaryan (36 years old), Yann Sommer (37 years old), Francesco Acerbi (37 years old), Matteo Darmian (36 years old), Hakan Calhanoglu (31 years old), Stefan de Vrij (33 years old), were still able to continue fighting for another 2 years and even reached the Champions League final.

Just look at how the "old men" of Inter faced the "young men" of Barcelona for 120 minutes, you can see how resilient they are. Spirit and organization are things that Italians are always very proud of. Now, it is present in every foot of the Inter warriors.

Many people felt cold when witnessing veteran Acerbi take off his shirt after scoring against Barcelona in the 90+3 minute, bringing Inter back from the dead. That warrior is 37 years old this year (2 years ago he stopped Haaland in the final) and has "returned from the dead" twice in his life when he defeated testicular cancer.

But extraordinary determination helped Acerbi overcome the most difficult moments to become Inter's hero. Acerbi once confided: "If I hadn't had cancer, I would have retired at the age of 28, while playing in Serie B. However, thanks to cancer, my real life began."

That said, both Inter and PSG are strange teams. They are not the strongest, but they have excelled in overcoming adversity thanks to their brave hearts, unflinching legs and very high level of organization. As The Athletic summarized: "Inter and PSG are the teams most deserving of being in the Champions League final this season".

The broken 17-year-old and the big step forward of Lamine Yamal

Lamine Yamal deserves to be mentioned after the semi-final series, although the 17-year-old's Champions League dream is still unfulfilled. Yamal's tears fell after the cruel defeat against Inter. Perhaps, many people sympathize with the Spanish football prodigy's mood.

Coach Hansi Flick has called Yamal a "genius". Others have gone further, saying he is Barcelona's best player at the moment. Some have compared Yamal's influence to that of Messi at his peak. Coach Inzaghi has even confirmed that he will have three players to guard Yamal ahead of the second leg of the Champions League semi-final.

Failure in the Champions League this season was a good thing for Yamal. Sometimes, being too full at 17 is not good for the development of young players (Photo: Getty).

We are talking about a 17-year-old player who is still going to school and busy with homework every day. On the football field, Yamal seems to have run too far for his 17 years old. At that age, Messi was just starting to join Barcelona's first team, C. Ronaldo was even training at Sporting Lisbon's youth team. However, Yamal has made many colleagues who are his father's and uncle's age miserable on the field (Yamal's father was born in 1990, younger than many Inter players).

Basically, Yamal does not lack any skills to become a superstar in the future. He possesses good individual technique, diverse finishing ability, great vision and boldness. Temporarily leaving aside Yamal's incredible goal, let's talk about the tight-angle shot that hit the crossbar of Inter in the first leg, people can clearly see the quality of this young player.

However, coach Hansi Flick is the one most worried about Yamal "running too fast". He admitted: "What I want from Yamal is the ability to improve. He has to work hard to reach the level of Messi or C. Ronaldo".

It can be said that in terms of potential and skills, Yamal is not inferior to any star. However, what he lacks is failures. Everything is becoming too flat for Yamal when he breaks a series of records in major tournaments, winning a series of championships such as La Liga, Spanish King's Cup, Spanish Super Cup (Barcelona) and Euro 2024 (Spain team).

Now, if he wins the Champions League, Yamal will have a very full career at the age of 17. In some ways, that is not necessarily good because it makes the player's motivation and inspiration to play football not "full". At the age of 17, Yamal needs a painful enough fall to recharge his motivation and desire to succeed.

Sometimes, too much fullness and roundness too early is not good for this player. To improve, they need to "regenerate" from failure. In recent years, coach Pep Guardiola has worried that Man City's inspiration will "turn off" when they win too many consecutive Premier League titles. That has appeared this season.

Messi and C. Ronaldo both know how to stand up from tears. Messi even intended to leave the Argentina team after two consecutive defeats in the Copa America finals. But then, he stood up and carried Argentina to win the Copa America and the World Cup. C. Ronaldo is the same. His career has been "knocked down" many times by failures.

Without tears, there is no great success. That is why, for Yamal, failure in the Champions League this season is better than winning the championship. It suggests better versions of Yamal in the future.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/tran-chung-ket-champions-league-ky-la-va-giac-mo-vun-vo-cua-lamine-yamal-20250508181244348.htm