Paris Saint-Germain will face Arsenal in the Champions League final in Budapest, and the French club arrive with a significant preparation edge over their opponents.
PSG last played on May 17, when they lost 2-1 to rivals Paris FC, giving Luis Enrique’s men a full 13 days to prepare for the showpiece occasion.
Arsenal, meanwhile, only wrapped up their domestic campaign on Sunday against Crystal Palace, leaving Mikel Arteta’s side just six days to prepare for the final.
That gap amounts to an entire week’s difference in rest time, and it is an advantage PSG have benefited from consistently throughout this Champions League campaign.
Earlier in the competition, PSG faced Chelsea in the Round of 16, with the first leg in Paris on March 11 and the return at Stamford Bridge on March 17.
PSG successfully requested that their Ligue 1 fixture against Nantes, scheduled for March 14, be postponed by the Ligue de Football Professionnel to aid their European preparation.
The Nantes game was moved to April 22, and PSG subsequently beat Chelsea 5-2 at home before completing the job with a 3-0 win in west London.
PSG then had another fixture postponed ahead of their quarter-final tie with Liverpool, with a scheduled clash against RC Lens on April 11 pushed back to May 13.
The postponement of the Lens fixture drew significant controversy, as Lens were just one point behind PSG in the Ligue 1 title race at the time of the decision.
Lens released a strong statement opposing the move, part of which read: “It does indeed appear to us that a troubling sentiment is taking hold: that of a French championship gradually relegated to the status of an adjustment variable at the whim of the European imperatives of some.”
Despite Lens’s objections, the postponement was granted and PSG progressed past Liverpool 4-0 on aggregate, with the Reds having played Fulham on April 11 and carrying just three days’ rest into the second leg.
PSG went on to win the Ligue 1 title by six points, beating Lens 2-0 earlier this month after the controversial rescheduled fixture finally took place.
They then eliminated Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals to book their place in the Budapest final, where they will defend the title they won last year with a 5-0 victory over Inter.
Arsenal, by contrast, are appearing in the Champions League final for only the second time in their history, having previously reached the showpiece event back in 2006.
The holders will carry a full seven-day rest advantage into the final, a pattern that has proven highly beneficial for PSG at every stage of this season’s European campaign.
