Paris Saint-Germain face Arsenal in the 2026 Champions League final, with the French holders bidding to become only the second club in the Champions League era to successfully defend their title after Real Madrid, who won three in a row between 2016 and 2018.
The Gooners, runners-up in 2006, are seeking to become the 25th club to lift the trophy and the second new winners in succession after Paris' 2025 triumph. “The ambition of this club is big,” said Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta.
“We already have one trophy this season,” he said, “and now we want this second one. It’s all we’ve been talking about. There has to be a platform to reach bigger destinations and to aim for more.
PSG go into the match as favourites and the French side defeated Arsenal in the semi-finals of the tournament last year. They are looking to become only the second team to win back-to-back titles in the Champions League era.
"They are defending the trophy and they are the champions and we are here to take that away from them," Arteta said. With the Puskas Arena, in Hungary, holding a maximum 61,400 crowd, both PSG and Arsenal have been allocated 17,000 tickets each.
Authorities in Budapest are expecting at least 10,000 ticketless fans in the city, with the number of visitors expected to pass through Liszt Ferenc International Airport over the weekend almost doubling, to around 85,000, but fans cab go to specially laid-out fanzone in Heroes' Square where supporters with no tickets can watch the game.
Both sides are going into the game high on confidence, with each winning their respective league titles with some comfort – so, with that in mind, this Champions League final is hard to call.