Paris Saint-Germain's route to the UEFA Champions League Final

Paris Saint-Germain are through to the UEFA Champions League final for the second time in their history, and will be hoping for a better outcome than in August 2020 when they succumbed 1-0 to Bayern Munich at Estadio da Luz.

Les Parisiens have been knocking on the door of UEFA Champions League glory, reaching the semi-finals or better in three of the previous five seasons.

But they will be preparing themselves for a tough challenge against three-times champions Inter, who are preparing for their seventh final in the competition.

League Phase: Parisiens respond after slow start

• Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 Girona

• Arsenal 2-0 Paris Saint-Germain

• Paris Saint-Germain 1-1 PSV

• Paris Saint-Germain 1-2 Atletico Madrid

• Bayern Munich 1-0 Paris Saint-Germain

• FC Salzburg 0-3 Paris Saint-Germain

• Paris Saint-Germain 4-2 Manchester City

• VFB Stuttgart 1-4 Paris Saint-Germain

PSG began their UEFA Champions League challenge with a home match against Girona and picked up a hard-fought 1-0 victory thanks to a dramatic 90th-minute own-goal from opposition goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga.

However, they faced a tough trip to Arsenal on matchday two and slumped to a 2-0 loss which would trigger a downturn in their European fortunes.

An unsatisfactory 1-1 draw at home to PSV was followed by narrow losses at home to Atletico Madrid (1-2) and away to Bayern Munich (0-1) which left them positioned 25th in the 36-team group with just three games remaining.

PSG were outside of the qualification slots at this juncture but they triumphed 3-0 at FC Salzburg on matchday six and raised the bar by winning 4-2 at home to Manchester City on matchday seven.

The success over City left PSG in a much healthier position and they rounded things off with a 4-1 victory away to Stuttgart which took them to 15th in the final table.

Overall it was a mixed bag of results for Luis Enrique’s side although they had shown their quality against City, who led the contest 2-0 before being swept aside by second-half goals from Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola, Joao Neves and Goncalo Ramos.

Knockout phase: Path plotted past Premier League trio

• Brest 0-3 Paris Saint-Germain

• Paris Saint-Germain 7-0 Brest

• Paris Saint-Germain 0-1 Liverpool

• Liverpool 0-1 Paris Saint-Germain (PSG won 4-1 on penalties)

• Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 Aston Villa

• Aston Villa 3-2 Paris Saint-Germain

• Arsenal 0-1 Paris Saint-Germain

• Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 Arsenal

PSG missed out on automatic qualification for the round of 16 but their knockout round play-off fixture against Brest always had the look of a straightforward assignment.

The teams had crossed swords twice in Ligue 1 with PSG winning 3-1 in the French capital and 5-2 in Brittany.

And there was an even more one-sided nature to their UEFA Champions League tie with PSG wrapping up a 3-0 away victory in the opening leg before registering a thumping 7-0 success in the return match.

The bar was raised substantially at this point, with Enrique’s side earning the right to take on six-times winners Liverpool.

Markets narrowly favoured Liverpool to come through the tie and the English side established a narrow advantage after Harvey Elliott’s goal secured them a 1-0 victory in the French capital.

However, the Reds had been hugely fortunate to win the game and were indebted to goalkeeper Alisson for producing a string of outstanding saves as PSG bossed the shot count 27 to two and had 70.4% possession.

Liverpool improved in the second leg but were pegged back by Dembele’s goal and fell short in the penalty shootout where the goalkeeping excellence of Gianluigi Donnarumma was the point of difference.

PSG moved on to face another English side, Aston Villa, and took a firm grip on the tie by winning the opening leg 3-1 on home soil.

Enrique’s side added to their advantage when Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes struck the first two goals at Villa Park but that prompted a remarkable fightback from Unai Emery’s outfit, who responded with goals from Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa.

However, Villa were unable to find a fourth goal and PSG’s narrow 5-4 aggregate success earned them the right to tackle another Premier League team, Arsenal, in the final four.

PSG headed to the Emirates Stadium for the opening leg and collected a 1-0 win thanks to Dembele’s fourth-minute goal and some stubborn second-half defending.

They looked well placed for the return match but were forced onto the back foot from the off and didn’t settle until Fabian Ruiz calmed the nerves with a 27th-minute strike.

Hakimi increased the lead and PSG went on to claim a 2-1 second-leg success despite Vitinha fluffing his lines from the penalty spot.

Overall PSG had to come through some tense moments en route to the final and they will be hoping to show their resilient side in Bavaria.

This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.

You can see all the latest UEFA Champions League odds on our dedicated UEFA Champions League hub.