European Cup Champions
Today Crystal Palace won the Europa Conference League, in a very hard game against Rayo Vallecano, Rayo gave their best but, at least today, Palace were the better team. Last week Aston Villa beat Freiburg 3-0 to win the Europa League, So, for now two English Premier League teams have won two of the three European championships. Granted these are considered lesser events, but still they are vary hard to win.
On Saturday Arsenal play Paris Saint Germain for the UEFA Champions League title. This one is far more complicated, the two English teams that have won so far, both were the favorites and they clearly showed why. They won both events very convincingly, not easily but they were in the end deserved winners. But in the CL things are slightly different. PSG are the favorites, Arsenal are not favorites in any prediction sites I have seen.
Of course, this is a ninety odd minute game if one of them is a winner or it goes to 30 extra minutes and could even get to penalty kicks. To me both sides have a good chance, I don't really like Arsenal but they are playing good and could surely use this trophy. PSG are in pretty good shape and back to back championships would be great for them. As far as I know both sides are complete so there are no excuses, the one who scores the most goals takes it all.
Now, I really don't know if it is convenient for UEFA to have three English teams win the three European Leagues. But I can clearly see that the richer a team is the better its chances, something that is very logical. You have more money you probably have better players. While Aston Villa and Crystal Palace are not among the top 20 richest clubs in Europe, the teams they met at their respective finals definitely work with smaller budgets, hence both teams probably have more expensive players, which, while not meaning these players are better than those of their rivals, they are expected to do better.
Arsenal is one of the top 20 richest clubs, in ninth place, but they face PSG which is the third richest in the World. In this case I don't think the difference in wealth is that much of a plus, both teams have top world class players and you can expect anything on Friday. If I were to bet I would certainly bet on PSG, but I would be kind of nervous doing it. I guess this game will come down to how each manger reads it, I frankly do not expect a lot of goals, maybe 1-0 or 2-1.