KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- On the face of it, a Champions League Final in Munich without Harry Kane and Bayern could have been Hamlet without the prince. Instead European football has new kings after Paris Saint-Germain put Internazionale to the sword by a devastating, record 5-0.

PSG had spent £2bn on players since the Qatari takeover more than a decade ago but their new young team had succeeded for the French champions where the likes of Neymar, Messi and Mbappe had failed. All going to prove that football, whatever the individual talents, has to be a team game.

Looming beyond this duel was the shadow of the forthcoming Club World Cup in the United States with all that represents in terms of the balance of power between FIFA and UEFA. These two clubs will be there – maybe even to meet in the final once more – but, in terms of status, nothing compares with the most valuable European prize and PSG wrote their name in its history.

Inter were run off the pitch, without shape, without spirit and – after only a few minutes – without hope.

PSG began on the front foot with Inter, as expected and as befits their history, holding back to soak up the expected pressure.

That plan was exploded twice over within the first 20 minutes.

Inter could not say they were not warned. Desire Doue from the left and Ousmane Dembele from the right drew low saves from Yann Sommer before PSG took a 12th-minute lead. Vitinha threaded the ball into the box on the left and Doue, played onside by Federico Dimarco, squared for Achraf Hakimi to open the scoring against one of his old clubs.

Eight more minutes and coach Luis Enrique’s men were two goals clear. Pacho broke up a rare Inter attack, Dembele raced clear and fed Doue whose shot was deflected past Sommer off the luckless Dimarco who had turned his back on the PSG winger. Inter’s shattered stars stood, heads shaking in bemused disbelief.

PSG were football fluidity personified against an Inter team as static as training ground dummies. Marcus Thuram popped a headed half-chance over the bar shortly before the interval but the halftime whistle sounded with PSG pressing at the other end with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia just too high.

Inter rang the changes but nothing worked. Dembele and Vitinha set up Doue for PSG’s third goal in the 63rd minute and 10 minutes later Kvaratskhelia ran away for a fourth. All over, not only because of the margin but the chasm between the teams emphasised when newly-arrived substitute Senny Mayulu wrapped up a record winning margin in a European Champions Cup Final.

Luis Enrique thus became the second coach – after Pep Guardiola – to win a season’s treble with two different clubs after his initial with Barcelona and PSG became the fifth first-time winners in a Munich final. For Inter, having lost their Italian crown last week, this was total disaster.

The teams:

PSG: Donnrumma – Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Nuno Mendes (Hernandez 78) – Joao Neves (Zaire-Emery 84), Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz (Mayulu 84) – Doue (Barcola 67), Dembele, Kvaratskhelia (Goncalo Ramos 84).

Inter: Sommer – Pavard (Bissek 54; Darmian 62), Acerbi, Bastoni – Dumfries, Barella, Hakan Calhanoglu (Asllani 70), Mkhitaryan (Carlos Augusto 62), Dimarco (Zalewski 54) – Thuram, Lautaro Martinez.

Ref: Istvan Kovacs (Rom).

####