Champions League final: Meet the teams

There are just two teams left standing in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League and Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal are now heading to Budapest's Puskás Aréna for the showpiece of European club football.

We profile the finalists, taking in everything from their road to the decider to their tactical set-up.

Arsenal (ENG)

League phase: W8 D0 L0 F23 A4 (1st place)
Round of 16: 3-1agg vs Leverkusen
Quarter-finals: 1-0agg vs Sporting CP
Semi-finals: 2-1agg vs Atleti
Top Fantasy Football points scorer: Gabriel (75)
UEFA coefficient ranking: 7
Last season: Semi-final (L1-3agg vs Paris)
Best European Cup performance: Runners-up (2005/06)

Why they can win
Over the past three seasons, both domestically and in the Champions League, Arsenal have been consistently improving, and now they look to be on the verge of glory, ready to cash in all the experience they have accumulated. Two years ago, the Gunners made it to the quarter-finals; last year they bowed out in the semis. Now they're in the 2026 final. Mikel Arteta's side have the resilience and firepower to get over the line.

How they play
Impenetrable at the back, lethal at set pieces and goals from every angle. Arteta's team can win matches in any number of ways, built on foundations that average a goal conceded every other game. But the fact that 12 outfield players have contributed to their goal tally shows that Arsenal are far from just a solid defensive outfit. Up front, Viktor Gyökeres looks to have emerged as the missing piece of the puzzle, unleashing pace and trickery around him.

UEFA's Arsenal reporter, Joseph Terry: The league phase can be summed up in one word: perfect. No other team had a 100% winning record, plus Arsenal were top scorers and kept five clean sheets. The knockout phase has brought different kinds of challenges, and the north London side have faced up to all of them in seeing off Leverkusen, Sporting CP and Atleti. Arteta's men have shown demonstrable progress with every campaign in this competition, and there's a growing sense that this is their time.

Coach: Mikel Arteta
Assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City from 2016 to 2019, Arteta guided Arsenal to a 14th FA Cup in his first season in charge. After eighth and fifth-placed Premier League finishes in 2021 and 2022 respectively, Arteta's team have been runners-up in each of the last three campaigns.

Key player: Bukayo Saka
Saka came through the ranks before his breakout season with the Gunners in 2019/20. Blessed with pace and fine finishing ability, the winger, still only 24, recently passed 150 goal involvements for the club (80 goals, 70 assists). An FA Cup winner in 2020, he is the first Englishman to score in the Champions League semi-finals two seasons running.

Did you know?
Arsenal remain unbeaten in the competition this season with 11 wins and three draws from 14 matches. Sixteen previous European Cup winners have gone through an entire campaign unbeaten.

Paris (FRA)

League phase: W4 D2 L2 F21 A11 (11th place)
Knockout phase play-off: 5-4agg vs Monaco
Round of 16: 8-2agg vs Chelsea
Quarter-finals: 4-0agg vs Liverpool
Semi-finals: 6-5agg vs Bayern
Top Fantasy Football points scorer: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (117)
UEFA coefficient ranking: 3
Last season: Winners (W5-0 vs Inter)
Best European Cup performance: Winners (2024/25)

Why they can win the competition
Question marks over Paris' ability to win this competition were quashed emphatically last May, and the confidence gained from that crowning moment has carried them to another final. While the side again had a chequered league phase, their 8-2 aggregate victory over Chelsea in the last 16 and 4-0 aggregate defeat of Liverpool in the quarter-finals served as timely reminders of their individual brilliance, perpetual motion and bustling industry. The incredible last-four tie against Bayern München was another thing altogether!

How they play
Luis Enrique has moulded Paris into one of the great teams of the modern era. Marquinhos and Willian Pacho provide the defensive foundations, affording their nominal full-backs, Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi, the licence to operate as auxiliary wingers and midfielders. Vitinha and João Neves are the metronomes in midfield, while Bradley Barcola, Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are piercing presences across the front line.

UEFA's Paris reporter, Alex Clementson: It feels a long time since Paris finished the league phase 11th and again had to come through the knockout phase play-offs, where they were pushed all the way by Monaco. The business end of the competition has brought them back to their brilliant best. Luis Enrique's men have been irrepressible at times, serving up performances reminiscent of their title-winning campaign. Maybe lightning really does strike twice.

Coach: Luis Enrique
The ex-Barcelona and Real Madrid player won nine trophies during a hugely successful three-year spell in charge of the Blaugrana, then coached Spain to the EURO 2020 semi-finals and the 2021 Nations League final. He scooped a domestic double in his first season in Paris before steering them to their first Champions League title in a trophy-packed 2024/25 that also included Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France.

Key player: Ousmane Dembélé
Injury has prevented the former Dortmund and Barcelona forward from reaching the stellar heights of last season, but again he is delivering goal contributions at a rate of almost one per game. The Ballon d'Or winner is key for Paris, an unselfish focal point in attack who always brings the best out of his team-mates and has a habit of scoring when it matters, as Bayern discovered.

Did you know?
Paris are bidding to become only the second club in the Champions League era to successfully defend their title after Real Madrid, who won three in a row between 2016 and 2018.