Paris Saint-Germain will contest the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League final against Arsenal after holding Bayern Munich to a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their semi-final, progressing 6-5 on aggregate. The result was confirmed by the Bundesliga's official match report and corroborated across multiple outlets covering the tie.
The evening at the Allianz Arena was defined almost as much by refereeing decisions as by the football itself. PSG took the lead inside three minutes through Ousmane Dembélé, and Bayern spent much of the night chasing the tie. Harry Kane's late equaliser drew the hosts level on the night, but it was not enough to overturn the deficit built across both legs.
Bayern's manager Vincent Kompany was outspoken at full time. Speaking to the Guardian, he said the officials' decisions had cost his side dearly, though he stopped short of attributing the defeat solely to them. The flashpoint that drew most attention came when PSG's Nuno Mendes appeared to handle the ball deliberately in the first half; the visiting defender received a free-kick rather than a second yellow card, allowing him to remain on the pitch. Later, a clearance by Vitinha struck the arm of João Neves inside the area, and the BBC reports that Bayern players, staff and supporters in the ground were left in disbelief when the referee declined to point to the spot.
Italian VAR official Marco Di Bello, who oversaw the video review process on the night, became a focus of scrutiny in the aftermath. Football Italia examined the regulatory framework governing the decisions, arguing that Di Bello acted within the laws of the game as currently interpreted — specifically that Neves's arm was in a position deemed natural rather than deliberately extended, and that the threshold for overturning an on-field decision at the VAR stage was not met. Whether that reading satisfies Bayern and their supporters is a separate question from whether it was technically correct.
PSG now advance to the final, where Arsenal await. Bayern, for their part, must turn their attention to domestic matters after a European campaign that reached the last four before ending in frustration. Kompany acknowledged the refereeing grievances without allowing them to become the only story. His side, he suggested, needed to have done more across the full 180 minutes to put the tie beyond doubt — a concession that speaks to the margins that separate the finalists from the rest at this stage of the competition.