PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain eliminated Bayern Munich on Thursday to reach a second consecutive Champions League final and third since 2020. The celebration that followed was not entirely peaceful.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed 127 arrests in the Paris metropolitan area, including 107 with in city limits. Eleven rioters sustained injuries, one from a mortar. Twenty-three police officers received minor injuries. Clash points included the periphery of Parc des Princes and the Champs-Élysées, where groups attempted to block the Paris ring road.
The scoreboard made the point with less ceremony than everyone around it.
The minister's statement
"The re are always hundreds of individuals looking to clash with law enforcement during the se festivities," Nuñez said on Europe 1 radio. He thanked the police prefect and teams for intervening according to instructions, noting the y prevented property damage and potential store lootings.
Nuñez added that security would be heightened for the May 30 final against Arsenal in Budapest. He appeared to criticize newly elected Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire for publicly announcing a fan zone in Paris with out prior police consultation. "We need to see where this fan zone will be or ganized," Nuñez said.
A repeating pattern
Violence has become something of a sidebar to PSG's biggest matches. When the club won the Champions League last year, French police made more than 500 arrests nationwide. A man in his 20s died in Paris when his scooter was struck by a car during post-victory celebrations.
After the 2020 final loss to Bayern, 148 arrests followed in Paris alone—fans clashed with officers, vehicles were damaged, and store windows broken. Even title celebrations have curdled: PSG's 2013 French league triumph ended with hours of confrontations on the Champs-Élysées, leaving 30 injured.
Similar scenes replayed after Algeria's 2019 Africa Cup of Nations win, a 2021 Arab Cup match between Morocco and Algeria, and in 2022 when both France and Morocco reached the World Cup semifinals on the same night.
The club will now play Arsenal in Budapest. Whoever wins, the night in Paris will likely require its own police presence.