Paris Saint-Germain are through to the Champions League final, and the manner of their passage past Bayern Munich tells its own story. Bayern never truly threatened over the course of the tie, and at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday they fell behind inside three minutes before fighting back to level on the night — a result that left PSG comfortable, composed, and largely unchallenged across the full 180 minutes.
Writing in the Guardian, Barney Ronay argues that Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was central to that superiority, describing the Georgian as PSG's attacking scalpel — a player whose trickery and imagination repeatedly unsettled Bayern and gave the French side a quality of forward movement that their opponents could not match. The column frames his performance in Munich as a timely demonstration of the difficulties that await whoever meets PSG in the final.
For Arsenal, who will contest that final, the implications are considerable. Kvaratskhelia joined PSG from Napoli in January and has settled quickly under their head coach, his directness and unpredictability complementing a PSG attack already rich in options. Where other wide forwards rely on pace alone, his game is built on close control and the ability to manufacture space in tight areas — qualities that tend to remain effective regardless of the occasion or the opposition.
Bayern, for their part, are not a side easily dismissed. They finished the tie having scored through Harry Kane in the closing stages of the second leg, but the Guardian's account suggests that goal arrived too late and too narrowly to reflect any genuine dominance. For long periods PSG kept them at a distance, absorbing pressure and countering with a precision that has become characteristic of how the club play under their current management.
The final itself remains some weeks away, and Arsenal will prepare on the basis of their own considerable strengths. But the picture from Munich is one that offers PSG significant confidence. Kvaratskhelia, in particular, arrives at the final in form and settled — a player who looked, according to the Guardian's assessment, entirely at ease on one of European football's largest stages.