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What a year it has been for the beautiful game. We saw one of the greatest UCL semi-finals of all time, we saw one of the most surprising upsets in the last decade & Arne Slot’s Reds won the league.

You can sense the smile from ear-to-ear through these words. It didn’t work out like we wanted to in this competition, but the team that beat us are deserved finalists.

And we are here to talk about them, alongside the Nerazzurri.

As we get ready for the big match in Munich, we have to recap the journey’s that each of these clubs have been on.

Let’s get into it.

The Journey for Inter

Group Stage: 6 Wins 1 Draw 1 Loss

Inter under Simone Inzaghi has always been known as a disciplined team defensively. That was especially put on display during this Champions League campaign. They didn’t concede a goal until their sixth match against Bayer Leverkusen (a 1-0 defeat) and they held both Manchester City and Arsenal scoreless in their matches.

Three players that I think are crucial to the success of this team are Denzel Dumfries, Federico Dimarco & Marcus Thuram. Dumfries and Dimarco are the nonstop engines to the attack, flying up and down the wings all game.

In Inzaghi’s three center back formation, they take on the most workload and they are elite at it. There’s a reason why they’ve made two Champions League Finals in three years and have been constantly competing for the Scudetto.

If you don’t believe me, just watch their semifinal against Barcelona. Dumfries had two goals and three assists across both legs. That’s absolutely unheard of from the right-back position.

Obviously when you look at goals, Lautaro Martinez is usually the standout for this Inter team. However, this year, Thuram has more goals in Serie A and he also scored in the first leg in only 30 seconds (the fastest semifinal goal in Champions League history).

His assist to Lautaro against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinal and the winning assist to Frattesi are two standout plays besides that wonder goal. His hold-up play is incredible and it reminds me of Romelu Lukaku when he was playing for the Nerazzurri.

They are two different players when it comes to stature, but there are a lot of similarities in their game when it comes to holding up play and finding the right spaces to occupy in the midst of an attack.

I say all of this, but please don’t forget the superhero performance from Yann Sommer in the semifinal. In that second leg there were some moments where I almost fell out of my chair from disbelief. The goalkeeper for the opposition also almost made me do the same thing, but we’ll get to that later.

The Journey for Paris Saint-Germain

Group Stage: 4 Wins 1 Draw 3 Losses

It’s so funny how similar these teams are at certain positions. Where they are the most similar are the wingback position. Just like how important Dimarco & Dumfries are to Inter, Nuno Mendes & Achraf Hakimi are arguably even more important.

Both players scored winners in this competition (Mendes scored twice versus Aston Villa & Hakimi scored in the second leg versus Arsenal) & have played over 85 minutes in the last four matches.

These two are everywhere on the pitch, which helps players like Ousmane Dembélé & Khvicha Kvaratskhelia have the freedom they need to take on defenders 1v1.

Luis Henrique doesn’t really have an outright number nine in the starting XI, but all three players up front are able to play off of each other with ease. Whether it’s Barcola or Doué playing centrally, they have the freedom to move anywhere on the pitch.

This causes confusion for every back line in Europe. They don’t know whether to follow the central striker or track the runs from Mendes & Hakimi in behind.

The one area I haven’t discussed yet is PSG’s midfield. An incredible collection of all-around players, these workhorses are able to create magic with the ball at their feet.

Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz & Joao Neves aren’t the biggest and strongest people on the pitch, but they’re able to win almost any duel and strike a ball with the power of a thunder strike (see Vitinha’s goal versus Barcelona last year & Fabian Ruiz’s goal against Arsenal from this year).

What’s crazy about their journey is that they started awfully in this campaign, only winning one of their first five matches. They needed to win all three of their remaining games to qualify for the Round of 32 playoffs and did so by an aggregate score of 11-3.

After they beat Brest in the playoff, they decided to conquer England by beating Liverpool, Aston Villa & Arsenal on their way to Munich.

The “YSN” Prediction
PSG 3, Inter 2

I think the best semifinal possible for the neutral fan would’ve been Barcelona vs PSG. Both play free-flowing attacking football and there would’ve been several cool storylines with PSG knocking out Barca last year along with a possible Dembélé revenge match.

However, this is still going to be a great final. And for me it’s simple, this match is going won on the wings. Both teams have incredible midfielders, but the special talent will be flying near the touchline.

Will either team be able to exploit the space left by their attacking-first wingbacks? Which keeper is going to repeat their incredible semifinal performances? Who will make the first mistake? And will the opposing team capitalize on it?

There are a few good storylines in this one as well. Achraf Hakimi faces the team he won the Scudetto with, PSG look for their first ever Champions League trophy while Inter look to avenge their 2023 Final loss to Manchester City & their could be some possible Ballon D’Or implications depending on the result.

I cannot wait to watch this match and I just hope it’s as good as I’m thinking it will be.

Until next time, this is YSN, signing out.