MUNICH, GERMANY – Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan clash for European glory on Saturday when they meet in the 2025 UEFA Champions League final.
The Allianz Arena will host the match, with Bayern Munich’s hopes of reaching the showpiece on home soil scuppered by Inter in the quarterfinals.
Simone Inzaghi’s men also took down a swashbuckling Barcelona in the semis and have another against-the-odds assignment ahead of them, with Luis Enrique’s vibrant young PSG side having been the continent’s best team since the turn of the year.
Luis Enrique and Inzaghi are two of the finest coaches in world football today. An intriguing battle awaits, and The Sporting News spoke to former Manchester City and Real Salt Lake defender Nedum Onuoha to give us a tactical breakdown
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PSG-Inter tactics breakdown: 4-3-3 vs. 3-5-2
Both coaches have used their benches effectively in this season’s competition and shrewd in-game tweaks could be decisive, but at kick-off, there will be few secrets. Inzaghi is committed to his 3-5-2, featuring attacking wing-backs Denzel Dumfries and Federico Dimarco supporting the throwback front two of Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram.
Luis Enrique has remained true to his old Barcelona template of 4-3-3. The midfield three of Vitinha, Joao Neves, and Fabian Ruiz are technically supreme, while Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele are the stars of a livewire front three without a fixed central attacker.
“It’s a good final because the two styles clash so much,” Onuoha says. “PSG, with their forwards, will want a team like Inter to over-commit, but that’s the last thing on earth a team like Inter are going to do. We saw it two years ago in the final against Manchester City, Manchester City. Inter are so well-drilled and they can trick you into thinking they’re penned in. Before you know it, there’s an out ball and they send just the right amount of people into just the right spaces to cause issues.
Onuoha operated as both a right-back and a central defender during his professional career and can certainly see the benefits baked into Inter’s approach when it comes to containing PSG’s attacking box of tricks.
“I played in a three a little bit and always really liked the idea of it,” he says. “You have three centre-backs who want to defend, who aren’t as concerned about bombing forward, so you can cover for each other and also be more aggressive on an individual basis. If I follow the nine in too short in a back two, you’re always a bit anxious you’ve left space behind. In a three, if everyone’s playing in harmony, then there’s never too much space in behind.”
Hakimi, Dumfries and the flying wing-backs
PSG have a lavishly gifted collection of wingers. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola, and Desire Doue to call upon all at once is quite the embarrassment of riches for Luis Enrique.
But the decisive wide contribution could yet come from elsewhere. PSG’s Achraf Hakimi and Inter’s Denzel Dumfries both carry a formidable threat for their teams, and each can make a case for being the best attacking full-backs in the game right now. These sorts of players can force players and coaches to make key calculations on the fly.
“Inter have the ability to be really defensive, but then you have wing-backs like Dumfries flying forward. So then the match-up becomes Dumfries against Nuno Mendes, as opposed to in other games where you’re wondering how Dumfries will do against his winger,” Onuoha explains.
“Inter play their system cleverly. The strikers can go two vs. two with the centre-backs, but sometimes they’re just setting you up to get Dumfries down the side or release a midfield runner.
“It leaves it open what the matchups will be. Does Luis Enrique want his left-winger to try and pin Dumfries, or does he want him in the space between him and Bisseck as the right centre-half. It’s the same with Dimarco on the other side. Those sorts of decisions can lead to teams over-committing in transitions and those moments can be key.
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Champions League final 2025: The battle of the playmakers
Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz, and Joao Neves have been the best midfield in the Champions League this season. Nevertheless, it’s hard to argue they’ll have come up against such a similarly gifted trio as Inter’s collective.
Hakan Calhanoglou, Nicolo Barella, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan might not provoke the same excitement as PSG’s youthful stars and have more miles on the clock, but it would be foolish to overlook them.
“They’re all ball-playing midfielders, but when you watch them play, the defensive work rate and understanding that they put in is remarkable at times,” Onuoha says of the Inter engine room. “It doesn’t matter that it’s Mkhitaryan at the age that he’s at — it’s a matter of this is how we defend, we do this, and we do that. Rarely do you play a game against them where it’s fully transitional, and that’s because of how their midfield understands the game.
“PSG’s youthfulness could come into play, but you can spin that whichever way you want. The guys with older legs read the game differently. As you get older, you get more efficient. When you’re younger, you want to be here, there, and everywhere — especially in these big moments. The tiredness will come from whether you’ve had most of the ball or not. When you have the ball, you don’t feel that fatigue. If you can have really good possession, you’re in control
“The other side of it is that if you’re following people about and chasing around, it becomes a fitness drill. Whether you’re young or you’re old, you’ll be on the back foot in that second half and the manager will be looking to make changes. Neither of these managers are shy in that regard.”
Two No. 9s or false 9s?
Both attacks provide contrasting and lethal threats. PSG’s pace, skill, and strength in numbers is a tough ask for any defensive line, while Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram are the sort of versatile strike pairing seldom seen in the modern game.
“When someone plays with a false nine, and that player is between the midfield and defensive line, the big question is whose responsibility is that player,” Onuoha outlines. “Teams that do it really well tend to have good possession. If I’m defending against a team with a false nine and good possession, I find myself doing not much other than talking. You don’t get the strong defensive actions that you might get against a traditional number nine.
“Your team suffers but you’ve got to try and stay patient because the moment you step into a space where you don’t need to step in, someone like Kvaratskhelia, Barcola, or Doue are running into the space that you’ve left at full speed. From Inter’s standpoint, because they have a back three, maybe one of their players can be more aggressive.
“Defensively, you don’t want your fullbacks to dictate how deep a line is in terms of catching people offside, but when you play against a team where the highest players for the opposition are high and wide, you’ve got this tendency to fall into that. That can cause a significant issue in terms of third-man runs.”
By contrast, Martinez and Thuram don’t so much test a defence’s concentration as they present an array of present and tangible problems all at once.
“Playing against a front two is different,” Onuoha added. “Who’s got the one that’s going to be staying higher? Who’s got Thuram, which side is he on? Is he trying to set the ball to Martinez or play it out wide? How do you deal with their movements? If they get that balance right, it offers you different types of questions altogether.
“Even though Inter have the front two and it can feel really old-school, it’s not necessarily all about what the two forwards are doing. They use them as a vehicle to get other people into good positions, as well.”
Champions League final expert prediction
So, how does Nedum think this one shakes out? It promises to be a tight game, but he’s leaning toward European title No. 4 for Inter Milan.
“I think Inter have got the ability to not play to their absolute best and win the game, whereas PSG don’t,” he says. “If PSG win the game, they will have been comfortably the better team on the day. With that in mind, in this final, experience will matter.
“Inter were there two years ago with the same manager and a lot of the same players and they can get across the line. We’ve seen it in a lot of finals this year — teams not necessarily playing their best football to win trophies, and I think Inter have more of that about them.”
