The last match of the Champions League semifinals has the feeling of a final in itself. Arsenal and PSG – two clubs with enormous domestic success and no Champions League crown to show for it — will meet on Wednesday at 3:00 PM with everything on the line.
Neither team needs motivation. Arsenal’s only appearance in a Champions League final came in 2006 – and ended with Ronaldinho’s Barcelona lifting the trophy. PSG reached the final more recently, in 2020, only to be suffocated by Bayern Munich. For both, the ghosts remain. And this week, only one of them will get the chance to rewrite history.
Arsenal, for their part, are running out of dreams to chase this season. The Premier League title – so close, again – just slipped through their fingers. What looked like a season for the ages could easily become a season remembered for near misses. That’s why this semifinal is all-in. All resources, all energy, all focus. Arsenal didn’t come this far to leave empty-handed.
PSG, meanwhile, are hunting something bigger – the triple crown – something that has eluded them for more than a decade of dominance in France. The treble is alive. They’ve already locked up Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France. Now, with the most talented and balanced team they’ve fielded in years, they’re a step away from completing the story with a first Champions League title.
If you’re PSG, the plan is simple. You’re at home, you’re ahead, and you’re stacked with speed. Pressure Arsenal early. Let them feel that they are in your home – forcing them to open up. Then, punish them with raw pace and technical brilliance from Ousmane Dembélé, who’s arguably in the best form of his career, alongside Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and the up-and-coming Desiré Doué (dubbed the ‘New Neymar’). It’s a front line that doesn’t ask for space – it demands it.
Arsenal know exactly what they’re up against. They also know there’s no safe way through it. They need to score. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the opening minutes or with five to play — they’ll have to be open, aggressive, and a little desperate. That comes with risk. But the real challenge will be psychological. This is a match that will demand resilience, endurance, and players willing to take the game into their own hands
That’s where Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, and Declan Rice come in. They are the engine and electricity of this Arsenal squad – but in matches like these, they also need to be the spark. You don’t out-structure a team like PSG when you’re behind. You outthink them, outfight them, and sometimes, outshine them. It’s going to take improvisation, invention, and a willingness to go beyond the system. Arsenal will need the moments that don’t come from tactics – they come from guts.
And it can’t just be from the starting XI. The bench will matter. The energy will matter. The mental swings of a semifinal will matter. One missed chance or one moment of magic could define the season for either side.
Because even after this, the road doesn’t get easier. The winner here will likely face either Barcelona or Inter – both teams who showed last week that they’re ready to bleed for the trophy. And both will smell opportunity if Arsenal or PSG limp through.
But first things first. One club will get the chance to chase a long-denied dream. The other will go home, again, with nothing but questions.
For Arsenal and PSG, Wednesday’s semifinal is not a step toward the final – it is the final.
