Two in a row: will Safonov be able to stop Arsenal

Paris Saint-Germain's Russian goalkeeper Matvey Safonov is preparing for the main match of his career. On Saturday, May 30, PSG will face Arsenal in London in the Champions League final. For Safonov himself, this match could be historic: Russian football players have not played in the Champions League final for more than two decades. In the decisive game of the season, the champions of France and England will meet, and the final itself will be not only a battle between two top clubs, but also a duel between goalkeepers Matvey Safonov and David Raya. For more information about the match—up and the Russian goalkeeper's chances of winning the trophy, see the Izvestia article.

PSG and Arsenal's path to the final

The final sign of the Champions League in 2026 fully justifies the name of the tournament. Fresh champions of their respective leagues will meet in Budapest.

The PSG championship in France has long been no surprise to anyone. Since 2012, Parisians have consistently won championship medals, and only three times have they not been gold-plated: in 2012, 2017 and 2021, PSG finished second. All other seasons during this period brought the Parisian grandee championship titles.

The 2025/26 season was no exception. In it, PSG became champions for the fifth time in a row.

This time, everything was decided on May 13, when in the postponed match of the 29th round against Lens, PSG won 2-0 and thereby guaranteed themselves the championship for the round before the end of the championship. After that, Luis Enrique's team relaxed and gave Paris a 1:2 victory in the derby, which meant nothing to them.

At the end of the season, PSG scored 76 points, scoring 24 wins in 34 matches. The gap from the sensational silver medalist, "Lance", was six points.

But for Arsenal fans, the championship of their favorite team is a long—awaited celebration. There has not been such a thing in the Premier League for 22 years — since the legendary 2003/04 season, where Arsenal did not suffer a single defeat in 38 rounds.

This time it wasn't so phenomenal, but it was also very confident. Many people cautiously started talking about a possible championship in the context of the Gunners as early as December 2025, and as a result, the conversations were not in vain.

The long-awaited championship was brought to Arsenal by Manchester City, who drew 1-1 with Bournemouth on May 19 in an away match of the 37th round of the Premier League. This was enough for the Londoners to win the English champions title a round before the end of the season. Mikel Arteta's team scored 85 points, winning 26 in 38 matches. The gap from City was seven points.

It is symbolic that at the end of last season, both PSG and Arsenal became champions of their respective countries for the 14th time in history. And if this is a record figure in the league for Paris, then for red London it is only the third, after two other red clubs: Manchester United and Liverpool have 20 titles each.

But in the history of the Champions League, there is no triumphant equality between PSG and Arsenal. The Parisians are one step above the Gunners, having won once in two finals: in 2020, PSG failed to beat Bayern Munich in the decisive match, and last year the French confidently dealt with Inter Milan. So in the match against Arsenal, the club from the French capital will try to defend the title.

Safonov, Vladimir: how did our goalkeeper beat Donnarumma

The Russian has achieved the performance of one of the best goalkeepers in world football

The Londoners have reached the finals of Europe's main club tournament only once before. And unsuccessfully. That was in 2006, exactly 20 years ago. Then Arsenal lost to the Spanish Barcelona. But now the Londoners, on the wave of champion success, are definitely determined to win.

"When you throw off a burden, you feel joy and relief. Now we have to use this as a tsunami of emotions, hope and thirst to win the Champions League," Arteta said.

Who is better — Safonov or Raya

The final triumph of PSG and Arsenal in their national championships was the result, among other things, of the reliable play of the goalkeepers, who will meet in a correspondence duel in the Champions League final.

Arsenal's goal keeper last season was 30-year-old David Raya, who was included in the final bid of the Spanish national team for the upcoming World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico. In the English Premier League championship that ended, Raya played 19 dry matches out of 37, conceding a total of 26 goals. 19 crackers is the best score in the league — four more than Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma from Manchester City. By the way, Safonov's former rival at PSG.

Matvey's statistics are a little more modest compared to Raya's. But here it is fair to make allowances for the number of matches played in the French championship — after all, Luc Chevalier started the season in Paris as the main goalkeeper, who even managed to score one more "cracker" than the Russian. Nevertheless, Safonov's contribution to the PSG championship should also not be underestimated: eight dry matches out of 15, and 14 goals conceded.

However, in the Champions League, where Safonov played the entire playoff stage, Ray has an absolute advantage over the Russian — 4 missed and 9 "crackers" in 13 matches, against 12 missed, 4 "dry" matches in 10 games for Matvey.

But let's be honest: Safonov's path to the finals was much more difficult than Rai's. And longer. Arsenal took the first place at the end of the general stage, without losing a single point in eight matches, and due to this automatically qualified for the 1/8 finals, bypassing the first round of the playoffs.

Arsenal were frankly lucky with the net. On their way to the final, the Gunners were stopped by German Bayer Leverkusen, Portuguese Sporting and Spanish Atletico with a total goal difference of 6:2.

Balls come true: Safonov can rewrite the Russian history of the Champions League

The return match against Bayern Munich will decide whether the PSG goalkeeper will play in the main game of the season.

It was different for PSG, who became 11th. Parisians did not easily pass "Monaco" (3:2, 2:2), Then, in the 1/8 finals, we handled the top Chelsea very confidently." (5:2, 3:0), In the quarterfinals, they beat Liverpool twice with a score of 2:0, and in the semifinals they stood up in a shootout. with Bayern" (5:4, 1:1). So Safonov clearly had more work to do, and the more valuable his team's entry into the finals was.

A historic finale for Russia

Yes, yes, for Russia. We didn't get anything wrong. The fact is that Russian football players have not been on the field in the final matches of the Champions League for 22 years. And there is no doubt that this series will be interrupted on Saturday due to Safonov's appearance at the Pushkas Arena in Budapest. So Matvey will repeat the success of midfielder Dmitry Alenichev, who played for Porto in the 2003-04 season finale against Monaco.

Of course, you can hardly expect a goal from Safonov, as from Alenichev, due to his different roles, but a "cracker" or several key saves — why not?

The main success for Russian football following the results of this final, of course, will be the victory of PSG and Safonov in particular. So Matvey will become the first Russian football player to win two Champions League cups (and even in a row), and also win the sixth "Russian" Champions League Cup, after Igor Dobrovolsky (Marseille, France, 1993), Vladimir Bout (Borussia Dortmund, Germany, 1997), the already mentioned Alenichev, Denis Cheryshev (Real Madrid, Spain, 2016) and himself a year ago.

PSG's chances of repeating last year's success are quite high. But the English champion will certainly try to surprise the Parisians with something.