An European football night is not as big as a UEFA Champions League final as such, no quarter would be given and none would be asked when Internazionale Milano (Inter Milan) and Paris Saint Germain (PSG) clash tonight at the Allianz Arena in Munich. Nevertheless, former Nigeria International and notable tactician, Sunday Oliseh, has predicted a close encounter even as he tilted towards The Red-and-Blues (PSG) than to The Black and Blues (Inter) in a high-class preview with MORAKINYO ABODUNRIN…
Erstwhile Super Eagles’ captain and coach, Sunday Oliseh, believes the 2025 UEFA Champions League final between Internazionale Milano (Inter Milan) and Paris Saint Germain (PSG), is too close to call , adding there would be a little margin for errors even as he pitched Qatari-backed French giants as the front runner for the prestigious trophy widely known as ‘the cup with the big ears’.
Tonight at the Munich Football Arena otherwise known as the Allianz Arena, in Munich, Germany, a battle-hardened Inter-led Simeone Inzaghi will face off against a rejuvenated PSG-led Luis Enrique in what Oliseh admitted was never a strong proposition at the outset of the new format UEFA Champions League.
Unlike in the past, the road to this year’s UCL Final match was long and winding with the knockout phase play-offs whereby the top eight sides in the league phase qualify automatically for the round of 16, the teams finishing in ninth to 24th place kick-off the knockout stages. They compete in a two-legged knockout phase play-off to secure their path to the last 16.
En route to this final, PSG had a tough schedule but they took out Mohammed Sallah-led Liverpool in the 16th Round (4-1 on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate scores), dismantled a stubborn Aston Villa over two legs in the quarter finals ( 5-4 aggregate win) unto the semi-finals where they overpowered Arsenal with a commanding performances to reach the final on a 3-1 aggregate win. The route was equally not a piece of the cake for Inter Milan but they showered superiority with a 4-1 aggregate win over Feyenoord in the 16th Round and showed so much grit in the quarter finals to deny Bayern Munich the dream of heading to the UCL Final on their home soil when Davide Frattesi scored a late winner at the Allianz Arena to send the The Black and Blues (I Nerazzurri) on a 4-3 aggregate. Yet it was in the semi-finals that Inter truly showed they are master of their ‘Catenaccio’ when they contained and out-foxed the rampaging Lamine Yamal-Raphinha-inspired Barcelona to book their spot in a dramatic 7-6 aggregate win.
“Honestly, very few would have predicted rightly that this year’s UEFA Champions League Final would be played between Inter Milan and Paris Saint Germain,” Oliseh who was recently appointed into International Football Association Board (IFAB)-the global body responsible for creating and overseeing the rules that govern football worldwide- told NationSport .“But after I saw PSG play Liverpool in Anfield, then I felt this team can win the Champions League.”
Oliseh, a ‘Centrocampista’ in his heyday at Ajax, Juventus and Dortmund explained why PSG was dominant against Liverpool, adding the performance of the history-chasing French giants in the second leg at Anfield largely unexpected.
He continued: “What stood out in that particular game, Liverpool-PSG? It was the way they (PSG) behaved with and without the ball. They had a very well-structured way of reacting without the ball. And they had a systematic way of acting on the ball that paralyzed Liverpool and made Liverpool lost.
“Maybe, if they had done that in Paris, I would have felt, ‘okay’ , Liverpool was playing away. But they were doing it in Anfield, where Liverpool always try to win their games.
“It was then I knew that, wow, there is something here in this PSG.”
If PSG was the pick of the crops in the quarter finals, Inter Milan themselves showed they were not the Cinderella of this UCL campaign with the way and manner they dumped Barcelona in that nerve-wracking semi-final.
Yet Oliseh, a UEFA Intertoto Cup winner with Juventus in 1999, demurred, saying it was Barcelona themselves that lost the plot .
“ I wouldn’t totally agree that Inter Milan has an edge over PSG going into Saturday’s final because of the way they beat Barcelona in the semi-final,” Oliseh, AFCON and Olympic soccer gold winner with Nigeria, volunteered. “It depends on how you look at it but if you want to be direct about it, Inter qualified for the final because Barcelona had a poor defence; and some errors in substitution of players.
“You can’t be leading 3-2 in a semi-final of Champions League and you bring in a striker?
“But if you bring in Lewandowski when the game was almost over and leading 3-2,you don’t need to be in the final,” Oliseh further noted in his usual frankness pulled no punches .“Well, I never like to blame (the coach, Hansi Flick), but I just feel that in my own opinion, I think that (the substituting errors) played a huge role (for Inter to progress to the UCL Final).”
Only 23 different clubs have won the UEFA Champions League (formerly European Cup) since its inception in 1955-56 but Oliseh believes PSG looks the best bet to become the 24th winner .
“ I hope my Arsenal friends won’t be angry at me because up till now, I have succeeded in every prediction I have made leading to this final which I shared anyway, with my close friends and family but this final (between PSG and Inter) is going to be the most difficult one to predict,” Oliseh, a Bundesliga winner with Dortmund in the 2002/2002 season, further said. “But I can just give you what I feel could happen based on the scenarios that could be produced over the cause of the 90 minutes game.
“ This particular game is difficult to predict because none of the two teams is playing the Tiki-taka football 100 percent as such, I think that would be able to win this final would be the team that is able to score first and manage the ball possession.
“ Being able to manage the ball possession in the sense that, to determine the tempo of the game and I think that is where PSG has an advantage.”
Oliseh would further ran away from joining most purists tipping Inter to go all the way to win their fourth Champions League following their previous successes in 1964, 1965 and 2010 where they beat most people’s favourites, Bayern Munich.
“I think people are underrating PSG,” Oliseh, a seasoned tactician who was awarded with the Bronze Bull Plaque during his remarkable stint with Dutch side, Fortuna Sittard in 2017/2018. “ But this is a team that has beaten four English Premier League teams en route to this final and it is interesting to know that all these four teams (Man City, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal) have all qualified for next year’s Champions League and that should tell you that they are not winning by chance.
“There is a concise and concerted effort that is dominating and that is a plus to PSG.”
Oliseh would further argued that with PSG, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, adding the best thing to have happened to The Red-and-Blues (Les Rouge-et-Bleu) in this campaign was the departure of their former talisman, Kylian Mbappe.
“ I agree with you that the best thing that happened to this club (PSG), was the departure of Mbappe to Real Madrid, he said. “The second best thing was employing Luis Enrique as the coach of PSG.
“ His team’s tactical variations are extraordinary. His team plays the passing game and they are not afraid to go away from the passing and jump lines when they are having difficulties.
“Personally, I have a bias towards him (Enrique) because I know he’s gone through some difficult private issues, like when he lost his daughter .It’s been a very hard time for him as a human being and to see him come back and take a team without so many stars and been able to create a team with young talented players to play like this, is unbelievable.”
Pressed to pick from the hat the likely winner of tonight’s encounter and possibly the star of the final, Oliseh was further forthcoming. “The only thing that will make PSG not to win is if they don’t play at their best. But if they play at their best, they will win it.
“ And I give you a player to look out for in PSG , Ousmane Dembélé but every player on the in Inter side can be ‘crazy’.
“Inter is the most unpredictable team in. Every player can win it for them including their goalkeeper (Yann Sommer) ,he can win it with his saves.
“ But let me quickly add that PSG has the best goalkeeper (Gianluigi Donnarumma) in this campaign
“My final thought? Inter can win it is based on their defensive structure. If Inter scores first, it could be a huge problem for PSG.
“ But as I said earlier, this is a final where it is not enough to score and sit back and I think Inter can be vulnerable when they sit back like we saw them against Barcelona when they first surrendered a 2-0 lead in the second leg before their dramatic 4-3 win that sent them to the final,” he noted.
