Key events
Harbinger Of Doom Corner. Two photos posted without comment.
A reminder of how these teams earned the right to compete for the 2025 Super Cup. Fans of Manchester United and Internazionale look away now.
Thomas Frank talks to TNT Sports, and is first asked to wax lyrical over the new Tottenham captain Cristian Romero. “He is a leader … a very experienced player … we are going into a final, and he has been in a few finals, and been very successful … he knows what it is about … on and off the pitch he will lead the team … we are facing a very good team but we are confident in ourselves … it is one game and we see an opportunity … we want to be brave, aggressive and go forward … there needs to be a foundation … solidness … togetherness … very difficult to beat … that’s the minimum criteria and then we go from that … I just showed a picture to the players, that they are winners … they proved it three months ago … they won a very important trophy … of course they can do it today … go out and enjoy it.”
There are three changes to the PSG side that started the Champions League final. Gianluigi Donnarumma is halfway through the out door, and is replaced in goal by Lucas Chevalier, the new signing from Lille. Meanwhile Warren Zaïre-Emery and Bradley Barcola come in for João Neves and Fabián Ruiz, with only the latter on the bench tonight.
Thomas Frank takes charge of Tottenham for the first time in a proper fixture tonight, and gives two players their competitive debut. João Palhinha, on loan from Bayern Munich, starts in midfield, while Mohammed Kudus, the £55m signing from West Ham, plays up front. Europa League final match-winner Brennan Johnson starts on the bench.
The teams
Paris Saint-Germain: Chevalier, Marquinhos, Hakimi, Nuno Mendes, Pacho, Vitinha, Doué, Zaïre-Emery, Dembélé, Kvaratskhelia, Barcola.
Subs: Safonov, Marin, Hernandez, Lucas Beraldo, Kamara, Fabian, Lee, Goncalo Ramos, Mbaye.
Tottenham Hotspur: Vicario, Romero, Danso, Porro, van de Ven, Bentancur, João Palhinha, Sarr, Richarlison, Spence, Kudus.
Subs: Austin, Kinský, Davies, Vušković, Byfield, Gray, Bergvall, Solanke, Johnson, Tel, Odobert.
Referee: João Pinheiro (Portugal)
VAR: Tiago Martins (Portugal)
Preamble
The sashaying, swaggering, record-breaking champions of Europe take on the winners of last year’s distinctly underwhelming Europa League final. That being the case, Paris-Saint Germain, the first side to win a European Cup / Champions League final by five clear goals, are hot favourites in Udine tonight to swat aside a seriously-below-par Tottenham Hotspur who just about got the better of a Manchester United selection plumbing depths adjacent to rock-bottom.
But! However! And yet! PSG might have seen off Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal en route to Champions League glory last season, but they didn’t have it all their own way against the English, and had their shorts freshly laundered, neatly pressed and handed back to them in the Club World Cup final by Chelsea. That will give them pause. Meanwhile nobody ever made good money predicting which Spurs would turn up on any given day, and while they’re coming off the back of a 4-0 humbling by Bayern Munich, they’ve also recently beaten their arch-rivals Arsenal. So pooh-pooh the scattergun irrelevance of pre-season if you must, but this is technically pre-season too, so good luck calling it.
PSG are looking to add a first Super Cup to their fast-expanding resumé. They’ve only contested it once before, in 1996, and will hope to do significantly better this time round, having lost that two-legged tie 9-2 on aggregate to Juventus. Spurs meanwhile are in their very first Super Cup; their previous European wins during the competition’s existence, the Uefa Cups of 1972 and 1984, came during a period where the holders of the Cup Winners’ Cup got to play instead. So we’re breaking new ground tonight one way or the other.
Crystal Palace have just proved that trophies are like proverbial London buses: you wait long enough for one, then another arrives swiftly after. Can Spurs, who slaked their 41-year European thirst just three months ago, do the same? Kick-off at the home of Udinese Calcio is at 8pm UK time, 9pm in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It’s on!
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