Paris vs Inter UEFA Champions League final: What to look out for

Paris and Inter will go head to head in the UEFA Champions League for the first time in the 2025 showpiece.

Here are some key talking points ahead of the decider at the Munich Football Arena on Saturday 31 May.

Firsts for Paris, seconds for Enrique

There are a glut of potential landmarks for Paris in this final. A maiden triumph would end the recurring dream for the French side, one they came closest to fulfilling when they reached the 2020 decider, while a first league, cup and Champions League treble could follow – they face Reims in the French Cup final on 24 May first.

However, coach Luis Enrique has previous on winning a treble, having done so with Barcelona in 2015, and a repeat here would put him alongside Pep Guardiola as the only manager to complete the feat twice. Enrique could also etch his name alongside several coaching greats by becoming the seventh man to lift the European Cup with multiple teams – Carlo Ancelotti, Ernst Happel, Jupp Heynckes, Ottmar Hitzfeld, José Mourinho and Guardiola already have that on their C.V.

Inter's 2010 deja-vu

The Nerazzurri last scooped European club football's biggest prize in 2010, under the aforementioned Mourinho. As our reporter Paolo Menicucci noted after their semi-final success, there are many comparisons between that campaign and their current journey to the season finale, not least Inter beating the same opponents – Barcelona – in similarly absorbing fashion in the last four.

Júlio César performed heroics against the Catalan club 15 years ago and Yann Sommer did similar this time around, while marauding full-back Maicon scored a crucial goal in the first leg of that 2010 semi-final epic, only for Denzel Dumfries to seemingly out-do the Brazilian great with two goals and three assists across this season's tie.

Martínez or Dembélé to step up?

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. That idiom has often been apparent in Champions League finals with the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo writing their names in folklore with match-deciding displays in finals down the years. The question this time around is which prolific marksman will be pivotal here – Lautaro Martínez, who has nine goals in the competition this term, or Ousmane Dembélé (eight)?

Both set the necessary tone in their last-four ties. The 27-year-old Martínez, who is Inter's all-time top Champions League/European Cup goalscorer, scored the opener in the 4-3 second-leg epic against Barcelona while Dembélé's clinical swept finish at Arsenal in the first leg paved the way for Paris to progress. Which of those predators will come to the fore in Munich?

A Player of the Match goalkeeper?

For either of those strikers to shine, though, they will have to find a way past the brilliant goalkeepers likely to start this final. The displays of the two No1s – Paris' Gianluigi Donnarumma and Inter's Yann Sommer – have been outstanding throughout the season, but they arguably reached new heights during those semi-final ties.

The Italian custodian was at his athletic best for Paris to paw away efforts from Arsenal's Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka and the Swiss made multiple fingertip saves from Lamine Yamal to help Paris beat Barcelona, so it seems the two goalkeepers reserve their best efforts for the key opposition players.

Bayern's Oliver Kahn won the first Player of the Match award in the final back in 2001, in a final played in Milan's San Siro – what chance a role reversal here with an Inter goalkeeper claiming the award in Munich?