The Champions League semi-finals kicked off with a historic and tightly contested first leg as Paris Saint-Germain edged Arsenal 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium.
The tie, already notable for several statistical landmarks, saw French winger Ousmane Dembélé strike early to give PSG a crucial away victory, Idman.biz reports, citing IFFHS.
For the first time since the 2017/18 season, four different nations are represented in the Champions League semi-finals — Arsenal (England), Barcelona (Spain), Inter Milan (Italy), and PSG (France). Remarkably, none of the four semi-finalists has lifted the European Cup in the past nine seasons, echoing the 2003-04 campaign which featured a similarly unexpected quartet (Chelsea, Deportivo, Monaco, Porto).
Notably absent are European giants Real Madrid and Bayern Munich — this is only the second time in the past 15 years that neither club features in the semis, the previous occasion being 2018-19.
Monday's match marked just the fourth semi-final in the past two decades between teams who have never won the Champions League (or its predecessor, the European Cup). Previous such matchups include Arsenal vs Villarreal (2006), PSG vs RB Leipzig (2020), and PSG vs Manchester City (2021).
The duel also had a Spanish flavor from the touchline, with Mikel Arteta and Luis Enrique becoming the third pair of Spanish coaches to face off in a European Cup semi-final — and the first time with two non-Spanish clubs. Luis Enrique had previously come out on top against Pep Guardiola in 2014-15.
PSG’s narrow win over Arsenal marked their first-ever victory against the North London club in European competition, breaking a five-match winless streak (3 draws, 2 losses). Before this match, Arsenal were the team PSG had faced most often in Europe without registering a win.
This also marks just the third time a French club has won an away leg in the Champions League semi-finals (excluding neutral venues), following in the footsteps of Reims in 1956 and Marseille in 1991.
Luis Enrique’s side set several new records in the process:
• 9 wins in this UCL campaign: the most ever by a French club in a single Champions League season.
• 74 away goals across all competitions in 2024-25: a new club record, surpassing 73 in 2017-18.
• First time since September 2023 PSG have fielded the same starting XI in two consecutive matches.
Ousmane Dembélé continued his sensational form, opening the scoring just 3 minutes and 15 seconds into the game — the fastest Champions League goal conceded by Arsenal since Edinson Cavani's strike for PSG in 2016. The goal came after a 26-pass sequence, the longest build-up to a goal in PSG’s UCL history.
The French winger now has 8 Champions League goals this season, tying him with fellow countrymen David Trezeguet (2001-02), Wissam Ben Yedder (2017-18), and Kylian Mbappé (2020-21, 2023-24). Only Karim Benzema has scored more in a single campaign (15 in 2021-22). Dembélé also became the first player since Lionel Messi in 2019 to score 25 goals in the first four months of a calendar year for a club in Europe's top five leagues.
The loss ended Arsenal’s eight-game unbeaten streak in the Champions League and marked their first home defeat in European competition in four years — the last being a 0-1 loss to Olympiacos in March 2021. It was also the Gunners’ first Champions League home defeat under Mikel Arteta, who had recorded 9 wins and 2 draws in his previous 11 such matches.
Idman.biz
