Six months later, I still see people on Twitter arguing about whether Inter Milan actually "showed up" for the 2025 Champions League final. Honestly? They didn't. Not even a little bit. If you missed the Inter Milan vs PSG final last May, you missed a game that basically rewrote the script for both clubs. One side finally shed the "nearly man" tag, while the other—the Italian giants we’ve known for tactical discipline—looked like they’d never seen a high press before.
It was 5-0.
Think about that. Five. In a final. It wasn't just a win; it was a demolition. People like to talk about PSG’s "oil money" or their historical failures, but at the Allianz Arena in Munich, they played the kind of football that makes you forget about the balance sheets. They were just better.
How the Inter Milan vs PSG Final Changed Everything
The lead-up was tense. Everyone expected a chess match. You had Simone Inzaghi, a guy who basically lives and breathes cup finals, going up against Luis Enrique’s possession-obsessed machine. On paper, it was the "unstoppable force meets the immovable object."
The object moved. Quickly.
Achraf Hakimi, the former Inter man himself, started the rot in the 12th minute. Talk about a "returning hero" narrative. He didn't celebrate, which was classy, but the damage was done. Inter’s 3-5-2, which usually feels like a fortress, looked like a screen door in a hurricane. By the time Désiré Doué doubled the lead eight minutes later, the blue-and-black section of the stadium had gone deathly quiet.
Why Inter Collapsed
A lot of people blame the fatigue from that brutal semi-final against Barcelona. Remember Davide Frattesi’s winner in the 122nd minute? That probably took more out of them than they admitted. By the time they reached Munich, the legs weren't there. Lautaro Martínez looked isolated. Marcus Thuram spent more time chasing long balls into the channels than actually threatening Gianluigi Donnarumma.
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Then there’s the Luis Enrique factor. He didn't just play "Tiki-Taka." He used Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembélé to stretch the pitch so wide that Inter’s center-backs, Francesco Acerbi and Alessandro Bastoni, were constantly pulled out of position. It was a tactical masterclass that rarely gets enough credit because of the lopsided scoreline.
The Night a Star Was Born: Désiré Doué
If you didn’t know the name Désiré Doué before this Inter Milan vs PSG final, you certainly do now. The kid was 19. Nineteen! He scored twice, picked up the Man of the Match award, and looked like the most composed person in Germany.
His second goal (PSG's third) in the 63rd minute was the "shut the lights off" moment. He picked the ball up on the edge of the box, shimmied past Hakan Çalhanoğlu like he wasn't there, and curled it past Yann Sommer. Sommer didn't even dive. He just watched it. That’s when you knew the "Inter comeback" stories weren't happening.
- Final Score: PSG 5 - 0 Inter Milan
- Scorers: Hakimi (12'), Doué (20', 63'), Kvaratskhelia (73'), Mayulu (86')
- Venue: Allianz Arena, Munich
- Attendance: 64,327
The Fallout and the Chivu Era
The aftermath was messy for the Nerazzurri. Simone Inzaghi, a man who had done so much for the club, left by mutual consent just three days later. It felt like the end of a cycle. You could see it on his face during the trophy presentation—that "I've taken them as far as I can" look.
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Now, Inter is in the hands of Cristian Chivu. It’s a bold move. He’s a club legend, sure, but jumping from the Primavera (youth team) to the hot seat of a team that just lost a European final 5-0? That’s a tall order. He’s currently trying to rebuild a squad that feels a bit "long in the tooth," as the British say. Average age is still around 28.8, which is high for the modern game.
Meanwhile, PSG is finally breathing. They got the monkey off their back. No more "when will they win it?" questions. With players like João Neves and Senny Mayulu—who scored the fifth goal, by the way—coming through, the future in Paris looks actually sustainable for once.
What We Can Learn from Munich
Don't let the scoreline fool you into thinking PSG just "got lucky" with a bad Inter performance. The Parisians out-shot Inter 18 to 4. They had 62% of the ball. It was a systematic dismantling of a system that had worked for three years.
For Inter fans, the lesson is harsh: you can't rely on "suffering" (as Inzaghi loved to call it) if the other team is fast enough to bypass your midfield before you can even set the block. Nicolò Barella was running on fumes by the 60th minute.
If you're looking to understand where European football is headed in 2026, look at the tape of this game. It's about verticality. It's about having wingers who can win 1-on-1s. Inter didn't have that; PSG had four of them.
To see how both teams have recovered, keep an eye on their upcoming Champions League league phase matches this month. Inter hosts Arsenal on January 20th—a massive test for Chivu’s new-look defense—while PSG heads to Lisbon to face Sporting CP. If Inter wants to prove Munich was a fluke, they need a statement win at the San Siro soon. For PSG, the goal is now simple: don't let the hunger fade now that the trophy cabinet is finally full.
Review the tactical shifts in Inter's recent Serie A games to see if Chivu has fixed the transition issues that PSG exploited so ruthlessly. If they haven't tightened up that midfield gap, 2026 might be another long year for the Inter faithful.