Paris Saint-Germain pulled off a stunning late escape before edging Tottenham Hotspur in a penalty shootout to claim the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday – its fifth trophy of 2025.
Trailing 2-0 with just five minutes of regulation left, PSG roared back to life. Lee Kang-in ignited the fightback with a blistering strike into the bottom corner, and fellow substitute Goncalo Ramos struck deep into stoppage time to level the score at 2-2 at Stadio Friuli.
In the shootout, Nuno Mendes coolly slotted home the decisive kick, sealing a comeback that had seemed all but impossible.
Even then, Tottenham moved into position to pull off an upset by taking a 2-0 lead in the shootout after Vitinha’s first-up miss for PSG. But Micky van de Ven and Mathys Tel failed from the spot for Spurs, and PSG converted four straight penalties – the last slammed home by Mendes.
“Sometimes football is unfair,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said. “I have to say we were very lucky in the last 10 minutes that we could score two goals.”
PSG won the Champions League-Ligue 1-Coupe de France treble last season, along with the Trophee des Champions in January. The only blemish came in last month’s defeat to Chelsea in the final of the Club World Cup, a competition that extended PSG’s 2024-25 season into mid-July.
Luis Enrique said PSG’s players had only been back in training for six days and took time to get into their stride.
“My players had faith until the last minute, like our supporters,” he said.
It was quite the debut for Lucas Chevalier, a goalkeeper who just joined from Lille and took over as first choice from Gianluigi Donnarumma – regarded by many as the world’s best goalkeeper.
Chevalier was unlucky in conceding Tottenham’s opening goal in the 39th, tipping Joao Palhinha’s shot onto the crossbar only for Van de Ven to react quickly and prod home.
He was to blame, though, for the second, failing to keep out a header from newly appointed Tottenham captain Cristian Romero in the 48th.
Chevalier finished the evening by saving a penalty from Van de Ven in the shootout – a match tiebreaker in which Donnarumma often thrives. The Italian might have been watching from home, having not traveled to Italy on Tuesday before announcing he would be leaving PSG.
“I’m very happy for him because he showed a lot of personality,” Luis Enrique said of Chevalier.
Thomas Frank was taking charge of his first competitive match at Tottenham after replacing the fired Ange Postecoglou, who led the team to its first trophy in 17 years with a victory over Manchester United in the Europa League final in May.
The former Brentford manager almost had a trophy to take home, with Tottenham initially outsmarting PSG and showing it is further along in its preparations for the new campaign.
PSG belatedly found its sharpness and customary slickness, hitting Tottenham with late goals in regulation – the dramatic equalizer coming from Ramos when he headed home Ousmane Dembele’s right-wing cross.
Frank said Tottenham “played almost perfectly.”
“The single result, 2-2, is good,” Frank said. “If you look into the performance, the shift the players put in ... wow, what a mentality.
“There are lots of things to be happy with. That needs to be the foundation going forward.”
