Success at the highest level in football requires the stars to align; players need to be at their best, midfield generals must take control of the match and tempo… and then you need a little bit of luck.
But games are ultimately won and lost in the penalty areas, where the strikers grab the headlines and defenders make heroic tackles and saves; and so it was in the 2024/25 Champions League where the four semi-finalists had among the best attacks and defences in the competition. The goal machines were ruthless and the defensive rocks were made of granite.
With 618 goals in the competition at a rate of 3.27 goals per match, and the net bulging once every 28 minutes, if your SBOTOP strategy was to stick with Over 2.50 goals then you most likely had a good competition.
Manchester City had the highest average percentage possession at 62 per cent and they went out before the Round of 16 stage. So, while the pre-tournament Champions League 2025 betting odds backed City for the title, there was no place for the Sky Blues’ passing and possession based play without a clinical edge at either end of the pitch.
Champions Paris Saint-Germain finally broke through the glass ceiling and they were the second top scorers in the competition, finishing with 38 goals and behind only semi-finalists Barcelona who racked up an impressive 43. The way PSG dismantled Inter Milan in the final was simply sensational, as Desire Doue scored a brace while Achraf Hakimi, Senny Mayulu and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia were all on target as one of the best defences in the competition simply collapsed under the relentless pressure.
Ousmane Dembele, with eight goals and eight assists, was the Parisiens’ most productive player while Doue was PSG’s second top scorer with five, so this was a team with a multiple threat which shared the goals around. Kvaratskhelia and Hakimi are two of the best wide men in the game, with searing pace, quick feet and superb delivery and they were often the difference as the Ligue 1 champions played some of most exciting football of the competition.
The semi-final between Barcelona and Inter Milan will go down as one of the best ties in the history of the competition, with a 3-3 draw in the first leg and a seven goal thriller in the second. In the end, an extra time winner from Davide Frattesi gave I Nerazzurri a 4-3 victory and 7-6 on aggregate. With the tie in the balance Inter took control at the San Siro Stadium and the home fans were relatively calm as Lautaro Martinez gave them an early lead before Hakan Calhanoglu made it look more comfortable. But it was never going to be easy against the top scoring team in the competition, and the tournament favourites at this stage, and the Blaugrana roared back with goals from Eric Garcia, Dani Olmo and Brazilian ace Raphinha.
It looked like the Catalans were on their way to the final until Francesco Ascerbi sent the game into extra time and I Nerazzurri just found enough for Frattesi to finish the job. This was the joint highest scoring semi-final in the Champions League with Liverpool and Roma’s tie back in 2018, and it gave Barca’s Raphinha the Golden Boot with 13 goals and eight assists while Borussia Dortmund’s Serhou Guirassy also finished on 13 goals.
Raphinha has had a magnificent season, finishing with 18 goals and nine assists in La Liga as Barca completed a domestic treble. Meanwhile Guirassy’s BVB, alongside Bayern Munich and the other semi-finalists, Arsenal, were joint third top scorers with 31 goals in the tournament.
In terms of defensive prowess the finalists Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain had the most clean sheets with eight and seven, and the English pair of Liverpool and Arsenal had six shutouts. The Champions League 2025 highlights were stacked with goals but there would have been more had it not been for the defensive excellence of I Nerazzurri’s Alessandro Bastoni, PSG’s Willian Pacho, Liverpool’s man mountain Virgil Van Dijk and the Gunners’ William Saliba, who marshalled their teams’ defences with authority and great skill.
While PSG’s Gianluigi Donnarumma was a dominant figure; Inter keeper Yann Sommer made 60 saves, more than any other keeper in the competition. The Swiss stopper was a key man during Inter’s relentless march to the final but he had a torrid time in the semi-final, and then the final, as first Barcelona and then PSG cut loose.
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