Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain will bring the 2025-26 club soccer season to a close in a perfectly poised Champions League Final at Puskas Arena in Budapest on Saturday morning.
The Gunners, fresh off their first Premier League title since the Invincibles in 2004, are in the Champions League Final for the first time in the club’s 140-year history.
PSG, meanwhile, is looking to repeat as champions of Europe after they broke their maiden with a thrashing of Inter Milan one year ago.
The French juggernauts are -145 favorites to lift the trophy on Saturday.
Paris Saint-Germain may play in a much softer league compared to Arsenal, but the Parisiens had to run a gauntlet to get back to this final.
Luis Enrique’s side looked nervy against Monaco in the qualifying round, but they righted the ship quickly and thrashed Chelsea, 8-2, on aggregate in the Round of 16.
From there, they took out another English powerhouse, Liverpool, in the quarterfinals. The Reds didn’t score a single goal across the two-match fixture.
It only got tougher from there as PSG had to stare down Bayern Munich in the semifinals. At the time, Bayern was essentially a co-favorite to win the competition with Arsenal, but the defending champions upset the odds in one of the most chaotic knockout fixtures in the history of the sport.
PSG defeated Bayern, 5-4, in the first leg, and then held the Bavarians to a 1-1 draw in the second.
With all due respect to Bayer Leverkusen, Sporting, and Atletico Madrid, Arsenal’s path pales in comparison.
And it’s not just the quality of opponents that made PSG’s run to the final so impressive. It’s the versatility that this squad has shown. When the situation called for it, the Parisiens would run rampant and outscore their opponents.
But, other times, they battened down the hatches against some of the most impressive attacks in the world. Holding Liverpool scoreless across two legs and then keeping Bayern Munich to just one goal in a must-win spot is tidy work.
That versatility should be the difference on Saturday, as the Parisiens are set up to handle whatever Arsenal throws at them in Budapest.
The Play: PSG three-way moneyline (+130, FanDuel)
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
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