Paris Saint-Germain landed European football’s biggest prize on Saturday night, dismantling Inter 5-0 in Munich to win the 2024-25 Champions League, only the second French side to be crowned continental champions, after Marseille in 1993.

It was a Desire Doue masterclass that helped Paris Saint-Germain land their first-ever Champions League trophy.

PSG enjoyed a dream start in the 2025 final when Achraf Hakimi finished off a brilliant team goal on 12 minutes, tapping in from six yards out after clever play from Vitinha and Doue providing the assist for the right-back.

The Parisians have made a habit of starting quickly in the Champions League this season and the final was no different, Luis Enrique’s team finding themselves 2-0 up after 20 minutes thanks to goals from Achraf Hakimi and Desire Doue. In an era where showpiece events can be sterile, cagey affairs, this was very much business as usual for the French champions.

Doue then got on the scoresheet himself eight minutes later with his powerful deflected shot flying past Yann Sommer to put PSG’s passionate fans in dreamland at the Allianz Arena.

PSG were not done there as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia got in on the action, having been sent clean through by Dembele’s pass and firing past Sommer, before Senny Mayulu confirmed Inter’s humiliation by adding a late fifth.

Inter needed to produce a second-half comeback but there was no sign of one in the works as Doue made it three after another sensational team goal with Vitinha again involved and a no-look flick from Ousmane Dembele.

To their credit Inter improved after half-time but the game was sealed just after the hour mark when Doue scored his second of the evening after delightful work from Ousmane Dembele and Vitinha. Further goals from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Mayulu were merely the icing on a highly impressive cake. Their winning margin of five goals is the biggest ever recorded in a Champions League final.

In recent years, such a commanding first half performance — soaring into a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes — might still have set us up for another night of schadenfreude across much of the rest of Europe.

But as everyone has been at pains to point out on the road to Munich and throughout PSG’s run to this final, those Benzema hat-tricks at the Bernabeu, late Rashford penalties and remontadas now feel a thing of the past.

Everyone expected Luis Enrique’s side to at least dominate possession. In the end, they dominated entirely. For all the talk of Inter’s threat on transition after their helter-skelter semi-final with Barcelona, the Serie A side were contained, controlled and totally overcome.

The Qatari state’s vision of a team of superstars lifting European football’s greatest prize has not come to pass, but it was perhaps inevitable – given the level of expense – that at some point, PSG would make history.

And this young, hungry, brilliantly-talented team – such a departure from the PSG sides of the recent past – may well be the future too.

Inter were on course for a treble going into the end of April. Emulating the immortals of 2010 was an opportunity they cautiously believed in seizing. In the end, Inter finished the season empty-handed – unless the Club World Cup figures as a goal.

It is hard to imagine an exhausted team being up for it. Much has been made of the average age of this Inter team and how the squad needs to undergo a rejuvenation over the summer.

Desire Doue has been enormous fun this season. PSG have such a glut of talent that standing out in their crowd would be a challenge for almost anyone, but Doue has often been a delight – and perhaps that’s because he has felt so new and novel during this Champions League run?

Most people knew his name a year ago when he became a gossip column staple ahead of his transfer from Rennes, but how many really appreciated his body of work or could speak descriptively on what made him so talented?

In material terms, Doue had an exceptional impact on this final. His drifting movement behind Inter’s defence created the first goal and he scored the second, running the length of the pitch to keep up with a counter-attack and eventually receive Ousmane Dembele’s superb final pass.

His second goal was more than a moment; it was history. It put the game beyond doubt and put Inter away.

But Doue is in this rare territory in which other than for those who watch him in Ligue 1 every week, he is doing something different in every Champions League round. A bit of skill. A type of finish. Some nous that he was presumed not to possess.

First and foremost, his assist and goals have won his team the European Cup for the first time. That matters more than anything else. But his part in that historic achievement comes in a specific context — he has spent the year gently exploding into the mainstream, with this final crescendo in Munich, in the biggest club game of all.

Explosive starts accelerated PSG past Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal in the knockouts and their two early strikes on Saturday night quickly put the game to bed. It might sound simple, but consistently striking early in the knockout stages has helped them to seize control and throw their opponents’ carefully laid game plans into disarray.

Luis Enrique’s side has now scored nine goals within the opening 20 minutes across their Champions League matches.

The immediate start looked inauspicious, though, as PSG booted the ball straight into touch from kick-off. But this is how they often start games in the Champions League and the PSG machine clicked into gear almost instantly, suffocating Inter with their pressing and relentlessly pulling them out of shape with fluid rotations.

Luis Enrique remarked that they “scored the goal early playing the way we play” after Ousmane Dembele’s early strike in the semi-final against Arsenal. The opening goal in Munich similarly showcased their free-flowing attacking philosophy. Vitinha slipped a delicate pass to Desire Doue on the left, who had drifted to the opposite flank, before squaring for right-back Hakimi, arriving in the box to tap home.

Beyond the obvious advantage of taking the lead, PSG’s early goals provide the perfect platform to unleash their devastating counter-attacks, no side has scored more than their six on the break in this season’s competition.

Inzaghi’s side, unaccustomed to chasing games having trailed for only 16 minutes all tournament before the final, were forced to overcommit in search of an equaliser. That opened the door for PSG to launch a lightning-quick break just before the 20-minute mark, ending with Doue’s deflected finish.

PSG have been quick out of the blocks throughout this Champions League campaign, and another blistering start tonight proved pivotal in sealing their first-ever title.

As pretty as Paris Saint-Germain’s opening goal was, Federico Dimarco’s deep position clearly made it possible; Dimarco’s decision to drop behind his own defensive line was fatal, playing Desire Doue onside and thereby opening up his own defence.

The habit of modern football is to damn players for any mistake. Especially when they are made in finals.

Big reactions, big clicks, big social media currency; that’s the game. But it is worth remembering just how fast the game is at this level and how little time Dimarco had to make that decision. Surely he’s due some empathy?

Remember this, too: making a cautious move in the opening minutes of a Champions League final, against a team loaded with attacking strength, who can move the ball quickly and with disguise is a very human thing to do – a natural act of self-preservation.

And the deflection for the second: given the state of the handball law, players can be forgiven for taking that kind of stance when facing a shot, assuming a position that could survive even a split-second-by-split-second VAR replay.

He just got unlucky and, again, that’s something that can befall any player on any occasion.

You have to say it was pure class from Achraf Hakimi. The timing, the composure, the presence of mind, all on the grandest stage of all. No doubt about it. That was one of the all-time great non-celebration celebrations. The finish wasn’t bad either.

In all seriousness, it takes some real sangfroid to open the scoring just 12 minutes into a Champions League final and have the equanimity to not even look remotely happy about it, to hold your hands up in apology rather than start wildly wind-milling.

Maybe you would’ve preferred Hakimi to celebrate properly, but perhaps he knew the beating that was coming for his former side. And you imagine the Inter fans were thankful for it by full time. It was the only moment of the night that anyone in Paris Saint-Germain shirt showed mercy.

• A Tell Media  / The Athletic report