Favorable Safonov: Russian goalkeeper wins Champions League with PSG

Paris Saint-Germain of France won the UEFA Champions League for the second year in a row. In the final, he prevailed over Arsenal in London — after a 1-1 draw in regular and extra time, the Parisians were stronger in the penalty shootout.:3. Russian goalkeeper Matvey Safonov is again involved in this triumph, but this time directly, as the main goalkeeper. Our gatekeepers have never won this trophy before.

The final

The decisive match took place in Budapest. PSG faced a very difficult opponent, who plays well defensively. In May, Arsenal managed to win the English championship, a trophy the Gunners had not won since 2004. The Champions League has never submitted to them. 20 years ago, they were close to a triumph, but they lost in the final to Barcelona.

Two key people of that team, head coach Arsene Wenger and striker Thierry Henry, were present in the Hungarian capital on May 30 and watched the PSG final from the stands. Wenger led Arsenal in 1996-2018, led them to three victories in the English championship, but the Champions League did not submit to him. The French specialist took almost all of his trophies in London together with Henri as the main striker.

The French striker managed to win the Champions League at the end of his career, but with Barcelona, which he joined in 2007 and with which he took the trophy two years later.

Mikel Arteta played for Arsenal in 2011-2016, already at the end of the Wenger era, winning two FA Cups with him. The Spaniard became the head coach of the London team in 2019 and began gradually returning it to the fight for trophies. This year, he brought her to the very top.

A year ago, PSG won the Champions League for the first time in its history. It was the second victory in this tournament for Luis Enrique, the team's head coach. He previously led Barcelona to it in 2015.

The Paris club under the Spanish coach has become a real Spanish hegemon. But Arsenal put up a stiff resistance to him. He opened the scoring early in the game thanks to a goal from Kai Havertz. After that, the English club defended confidently in their style, but in the middle of the second half they still scored a penalty. Ousmane Dembele confidently converted it and equalized the score.

Next, PSG had the advantage in the game, but it did not have a lot of chances to score goals. Goalkeepers Safonov and his colleague from Arsenal, David Raya, had few moments during the game when they had to save their teams.

But they didn't make any serious mistakes either in regular or extra time, so it came down to a penalty shootout. In December, Safonov became a hero in a similar situation when he beat off four eleven-yard shots from Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup, and PSG won 2-1 after a 1-1 draw in regular and extra time.

This time, Matvey did not take a single penalty. But Eberechi Eze, who scored second against Arsenal, missed the goal. Immediately, Raya beat off the blow of Nuno Mendes, and equality was restored in the series.

Otherwise, the teams hit without misfires, with the exception of Gabriel Magadjans, who came up to the point in the last fifth and shot above the goal, and PSG won the match.

Matthew's Way

Our goalkeeper joined PSG from Krasnodar two years ago. At that time, superstar goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, the 2021 European champion of the Italian national team, was playing in Paris.

Safonov was allowed to play several times during the group stage of the Champions League, and he also periodically took the field in the French championship, but Donnarumma played the decisive part of the season. Matvey won the championship and the French Cup, as well as the Champions League as a substitute. In the off-season, Gianluigi unexpectedly left PSG, joining English Manchester City.

A talented Frenchman, Luc Chevalier, was bought in his place. In the first half of the season, he was always on the field, but in December he suffered a minor injury. Safonov replaced him for three matches, bringing PSG victories in the Intercontinental Cup and two matches of the French championship.

During a heroic penalty shootout in the Intercontinental Cup, Matvey broke his finger and was out for a month. During this time, the Chevalier spoke uncertainly. PSG did not immediately advance from the Champions League group to the playoffs, but only to the playoffs. And in the French championship, the team could not break away from Lance, although, being the richest in Ligue 1, it usually takes gold domestically by a wide margin and secures the championship in January.

In the middle of winter, Luis Enrique decided to release Safonov, and Matvey no longer gave his place to Chevalier. In several championship and Champions League matches, he openly saved the team, especially in the away matches of the Champions League playoffs against Chelsea, Liverpool and Bayern Munich.

As a result, at the beginning of spring, there was a prospect that Safonov would become the first Russian goalkeeper to take the field in the Champions League final. And so it turned out.

Before Matvey, only midfielder Dmitry Alenichev had appeared on the field in the Champions League final. In 2004, he came on as a substitute for Porto during the game against Monaco and scored the third goal, and his team won 3-0.