Arsenal fought hard but were ultimately bested by Paris Saint-Germain in their UEFA Champions League semi-final. Check out the best facts and Opta data in our PSG vs Arsenal stats page.
Paris Saint-Germain will face Inter in the 2024-25 Champions League final after beating Arsenal 2-1 at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday.
Luis Enrique’s side won the semi-final tie 3-1 on aggregate, with goals from Fabián Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi, though Bukayo Saka pulled a goal back to make it a bit nervy for the Ligue 1 giants late on.
David Raya saved a Vitinha penalty with the score at 1-0 in the second half, but it was ultimately for nothing as Arsenal’s Champions League dreams for this season ended in the French capital.
Ousmane Dembélé, who had 25 goals in 25 games for PSG in 2025 heading into the second leg and was the scorer of the only goal in the first leg last week, was only named among the substitutes having not fully recovered from a muscle injury suffered in the reverse fixture in London.
PSG started that game at the Emirates Stadium well on top, but this time it was Arsenal who produced a fast start, with Jurriën Timber winning the ball high on the right before putting a perfect cross in for Declan Rice inside the first three minutes, but the midfielder headed wide from close range.
Having come unstuck against Bournemouth’s long throws in the Premier League on Saturday, Arsenal should have scored from their own early on.
Thomas Partey launched two big throw-ins that almost led to goals, firstly for Gabriel Martinelli and then Martin Ødegaard, but Gianluigi Donnarumma saved smartly from both, with the Italian’s stop from the latter in particular an impressive one, getting down to his left.
In all, the Gunners had five shots inside the first 10 minutes, the first time this season they had registered at least three shots in the opening 10 minutes of a Champions League away match.
PSG settled after the first 15 minutes, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia came agonisingly close to doubling the hosts’ aggregate advantage after playing a one-two with Désiré Doué, but the Georgian’s curling effort came back off the post.
The Parisians were ahead in the 27th minute though when a free-kick was only half-cleared by Partey, with the ball falling to Ruiz, and the Spain international controlled before firing an unstoppable shot past the despairing dive of compatriot Raya.
It should have been 2-0 moments later when Arsenal were caught out again, but Kvaratskhelia on the counter-attack slightly overhit his pass to Bradley Barcola, who had to cut inside and saw his shot under pressure from Rice saved at the near post by Raya.
Mikel Arteta clearly felt crosses were the best way of getting at PSG, with Arsenal attempting 16 inside the first 40 minutes, more than their full-game average of 15.6 in the Champions League this season.
While some games need a goal to come to life, PSG’s opener had the opposite effect, calming this one down as Arsenal somewhat halted their aggressive approach, which saw Luis Enrique’s men go in at the break ahead.
Arsenal could and probably should have equalised just before the hour when Saka whipped a corner into the box, but Timber couldn’t divert the ball goalwards.
Saka himself almost scored a few minutes later when he cut inside onto his left foot and bent an effort to the far corner, but Donnarumma was once again equal to it.
Moments after that, Hakimi broke away down the left and forced a save from Raya, but it wasn’t until some time after that that referee Felix Zwayer was advised to go to the screen by the video assistant referee.
Hakimi’s shot had struck Arsenal defender Myles Lewis-Skelly on the hand on its way to goal, which was enough to award a penalty to the French side.
After a lengthy wait, Vitinha stepped up but his effort from the spot was tipped wide by Raya to keep Arsenal hopes alive.
That was enough to see Luis Enrique send for Dembélé, who replaced Barcola, and it took the France international just two minutes to influence the game.
Hakimi got on the end of a hopeful ball across by Kvaratskhelia, touching it to Dembélé who laid it back to the Moroccan, and he bent a perfect shot into the far corner to seemingly put the tie to bed.
Dembélé has been involved in 12 goals in the Champions League in 2024-25, the most ever by a PSG player in a single campaign (8 goals, 4 assists). The only Frenchman with more goals and assists in a campaign for any club is Karim Benzema in 2021-22 (15 goals, 2 assists).
However, Arsenal would not go down without a fight. Their own substitute, Leandro Trossard, forced his way down the left before seeing a cross deflect kindly into the path of Saka, who managed to turn the ball in after getting past Lucas Hernández and Donnarumma at the near post.
It was Saka’s 10th Champions League goal in just his 18th appearance in the competition; of English players, only Harry Kane reached double figures in fewer games (12).
He should have had another when Calafiori’s cross evaded Donnarumma, but Saka skewed his shot over the bar.
PSG were able to calm the nerves and see the game out, though, booking their place in the final in Munich, just one game away from their first ever European Cup/Champions League success.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the PSG vs Arsenal stats from their Champions League semi-final second leg at the Parc des Princes.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
PSG vs Arsenal: Post-Match Facts
- Arsenal produced an xG of 3.14 tonight, the most by a team against Paris SG in a UEFA Champions League game this season. Their 19 shots were also their most in a knockout match since having 20 away at Barcelona in March 2016.
- Arsenal have now failed to progress from each of their last four major cup semi-finals (2020-21 Europa League, 2021-22 League Cup, 2024-25 League Cup, 2024-25 Champions League) – their longest ever run at this stage of competitions.
- Paris Saint-Germain have reached just their fourth major European final, also featuring in the 1996 and 1997 Cup Winners’ Cup finals and the 2020 Champions League final.
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