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Budapest police said the man \u201cleft the hospital without permission because he was adamant about going to the match.\u201d<\/p>\n
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They added that they are looking for the man and trying to contact his family \u201cbecause he requires immediate medical attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going back-to-back is not easy<\/p>\n
Only Real Madrid has successfully defended the Champions League title since the competition was rebranded in 1992.<\/p>\n
Can PSG be the second team to do so?<\/p>\n
The Madrid team of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale won the Champions League three times in a row (2016-18), under coach Zinedine Zidane.<\/p>\n
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Since then, no defending champion has reached the final until this PSG team, which beat Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich last year.<\/p>\n
Get ready for clash of styles<\/p>\n
PSG and Arsenal have reached the title match adopting vastly different playing approaches.<\/p>\n
PSG is the top-scoring team in the competition with 44 goals — that\u2019s an average of more than three per game.<\/p>\n
Arsenal has the Champions League\u2019s best defense, letting in just six goals in 14 games and keeping nine clean sheets, three more than any other team has registered.<\/p>\n
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Non-World Cup referee in charge<\/p>\n
The man entrusted with being the referee for the biggest match in club soccer won\u2019t even be going to next month’s World Cup.<\/p>\n
German ref Daniel Siebert was left off FIFA\u2019s list of match officials for the World Cup \u2013 after going to the 2022 edition in Qatar \u2013 so handling the Champions League final is a consolation prize in a sense.<\/p>\n
This will be the third straight round Siebert will have worked an Arsenal match.<\/p>\n
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Video review \u2013 or VAR, as it\u2019s known in soccer circles \u2014 will be in operation for the final.<\/p>\n
Here are lineups for Champions League final<\/p>\n
PSG: Matvey Safonov; Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Willian Pacho, Nuno Mendes; Vitinha, Jo\u00e3o Neves, Fabian Ruiz; Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Arsenal: David Raya; Cristhian Mosquera, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es, Piero Hincapi\u00e9; Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Martin Odegaard; Leandro Trossard, Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka.<\/p>\n
NYC Mayor Mamdani urges beloved Arsenal to \u2018enjoy moment\u2019<\/p>\n
Zohran Mamdani is a big Arsenal fan and the New York Mayor was seen wearing club-branded clothing when he joined residents across the city for Eid al-Adha prayers this week.<\/p>\n
In an article he has written for The Athletic ahead of the final, Mamdani said he started supporting Arsenal from the age of 9 after his uncle \u201cintroduced me to a team with a cannon on its shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says supporting the team \u201cincreasingly became an exercise in nostalgia\u201d until the recent uplift under Mikel Arteta.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver these past two years, no matter how chaotic life became, Arsenal remained the constant,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n
Mamdani acknowledges PSG is \u201cbrilliant\u201d and \u201cfrustratingly well-managed\u201d by Luis Enrique, but has a message for Arsenal and its fans: \u201cEnjoy this moment, because they don\u2019t come around often.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivalry extends to fans\u2019 chants<\/p>\n
Fans are making their way to the stadium under a cloudy, threatening sky in Budapest, and they\u2019ll have a role to play in the final.<\/p>\n
Not least with the rival chants that you might get to hear in your TV broadcast.<\/p>\n
PSG\u2019s most notable song will see their passionate Ultras bellow \u201cTous ensemble on chantera\u201d (All together we will sing).<\/p>\n
Arsenal fans have their own chant that has grown in popularity over the last few seasons in manager Arteta\u2019s 6 \u00bd-year reign, with a chorus taken from \u201cThe Angel (North London Forever)\u201d — written by singer and Arsenal fan Louis Dunford in 2022.<\/p>\n
Hungary and soccer<\/p>\n
This is the first European Cup final to be staged in Hungary and it comes at an interesting time for the Central European country, a few weeks after right-wing populist leader Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2018s heavy defeat in the elections.<\/p>\n
P\u00e9ter Magyar is the prime minister and is set to attend the match at the 67,000-seat Puskas Arena, a stadium that opened in 2019 and was built on the same site as the previous Ferenc Puskas Stadion \u2014 named after the Hungarian and Real Madrid great who won three European Cups as a player.<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n is a massive soccer fan and attempted to bring back the glory days of the 1950s, when Hungary had one of the world\u2019s top teams.<\/p>\n
To that end, the arena, located a few kilometers east of central Budapest, has become a well-known host for European games. The stadium staged the UEFA Super Cup in 2020, as well as a slew of Champions League group games and four European Championship matches in 2021. In 2023, it hosted the Europa League final won by Sevilla.<\/p>\n
Somebody told me The Killers are playing…<\/p>\n
Pre-match entertainment is being provided by American rock band The Killers, who are best known for songs like \u201cMr. Brightside,\u201d \u201cSmile Like You Mean It\u201d and \u201cSomebody Told Me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It differs from the Super Bowl, where artists perform in a halftime show.<\/p>\n
The Killers, who hail from Las Vegas, predicted an \u201cepic match\u201d when they were announced to be performing \u2013 though at the time, they didn\u2019t know who the finalists would be.<\/p>\n
In previous years, Linkin Park, Lenny Kravitz and Dua Lipa have been headliners in Champions League finals.<\/p>\n
Big gathering at Parc des Princes<\/p>\n
Some 48,000 fans are expected to fill PSG\u2019s stadium in Paris, the Parc des Princes, to watch the match on giant screens.<\/p>\n
PSG said Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire is among the officials expected to attend.<\/p>\n
Former players, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Claude Mak\u00e9l\u00e9l\u00e9 and Ronaldinho, have been invited to Budapest for the final.<\/p>\n
Capital clubs go head-to-head \u2013 and that\u2019s rare<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first time in 55 years that clubs from two different capital cities are competing in the final of Europe\u2019s biggest club competition.<\/p>\n
The last was Ajax (of Amsterdam) vs. Panathinaikos (of Athens) in 1971.<\/p>\n
There were only two before that: Benfica (Lisbon) vs. Real Madrid in 1962 and Real Madrid vs. Partizan Belgrade in 1966.<\/p>\n
This is also the first major European final featuring teams from France and England.<\/p>\n
The World Cup is coming. No injuries please!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the last match of the European club season \u2013 and World Cup coaches will be watching on with a mixture of intrigue and nervousness.<\/p>\n
The World Cup begins in 12 days, and the squads of both PSG and Arsenal are bulging with players heading to the tournament being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n
Any injuries sustained in the final could be devastating so close to the big kickoff.<\/p>\n
Arsenal has \u201ctaste\u201d for trophies now<\/p>\n
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says winning the Premier League has whetted the players\u2019 appetite for more trophies.<\/p>\n
Nothing comes bigger than the Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ambition is bigger,\u201d Arteta said in his pre-match news conference. \u201cWe have one, and we want the second one … there has to be a platform to reach bigger destinations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was the first player in the squad to get his hands on the Premier League trophy, and he liked it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get the taste of winning and lifting a trophy,\u201d Odegaard says, \u201cyou know how nice it feels. And we want to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, Dou\u00e9, Saka … a bunch of world\u2019s best are on show<\/p>\n
Many of soccer\u2019s superstar players will be taking the field at Puskas Arena \u2013 not least PSG forward Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, the most recent world player of the year.<\/p>\n
D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9, the 20-year-old forward who lit up last year\u2019s final with two goals in the record 5-0 win over Inter Milan, is still a shining light for PSG along with Georgia winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and three of Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s top teammates with Portugal \u2013 Vitinha, Nuno Mendes and Joao Neves.<\/p>\n
Arsenal has England stars Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice in midfield and the striker who has just sent Sweden to the World Cup \u2013 Viktor Gy\u00f6keres.<\/p>\n
Fans brawl in central Budapest<\/p>\n
Groups of fans got physical late Friday in Budapest\u2019s frequented party area, leading police to launch an investigation over disorderly conduct.<\/p>\n
Videos on social media showed several dozen people throwing punches and kicks, driving another group down Kir\u00e1ly street in the capital\u2019s District 7.<\/p>\n
One fan held a burning red flare before throwing it toward the other group, which was retreating down the street. Budapest police said in a statement that the violence erupted shortly after midnight, and that it was using surveillance footage to try to identify participants.<\/p>\n
__ AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trophy is displayed on the pitch before the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2936,20190,20238,20231,18302,20242,20247,20189,14525,966,1527,3719,20240,8909,20245,19527,2358,20246,17028,20241,728,7886,20191,1006,19529,20239,2937,696,28,29,30,20243,22,7896,24,20187,20188,2972,6809,210,19532,20244],"class_list":["post-27627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-achraf-hakimi","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-claude-makelele","tag-cristhian-mosquera","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-daniel-siebert","tag-david-raya","tag-declan-rice","tag-dua-lipa","tag-emmanuel-gregoire","tag-england","tag-fabian-ruiz","tag-gabriel-magalhaes","tag-gareth-bale","tag-kai-havertz","tag-karim-benzema","tag-khvicha-kvaratskhelia","tag-leandro-trossard","tag-lenny-kravitz","tag-louis-dunford","tag-luis-enrique","tag-marcus-vinicius","tag-martin-odegaard","tag-matvey-safonov","tag-mikel-arteta","tag-myles-lewis-skelly","tag-nuno-mendes","tag-ousmane-dembele","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-paris","tag-piero-hincapie","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32553-ap-online-soccer-news","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-psg-arsenal-champions-league-final","tag-viktor-gyokeres","tag-viktor-orban","tag-vitor-ferreira","tag-william-saliba","tag-zlatan-ibrahimovic","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}