It was a happy half-time at Le Taylor in the 10th arrondissement in central Paris. Around 50 people had spilled out of the bar screening the Champions League final onto Rue Taylor to savour Paris Saint-Germain's 2-0 advantage over Inter Milan with alcohol or nicotine.
"It's been an incredible 45 minutes," said Stéphane Aupetit as he stood nursing a drink waiting for his wife Martine to join him and their 17-year-old daughter Lili.
"It's a good PSG team with the way everyone attacks and defends. I like it a lot."
Cheers and chatter recounting the goals from Achraf Hakimi and Désiré Doué as well as the absence of Inter Milan in the game at the Allianz Arena in Munich filtered along the quiet street situated an old school goal kick away from the Canal Saint-Martin.
Describing himself as a mildly interested supporter, Aupetit travelled from Porte d'Asnières, north-western Paris, to watch the match at the local of his friend Stanley Weber.
Freshly returned from a three-month shoot in Corsica, the 48-year-old camera operator, joked: "It's lucky I got back yesterday. I don't think a bar in Ajaccio would have been the place to be supporting PSG."
With Martine finally present, the family Aupetit transferred to the throng and throb inside for the second-half.
"It's started well, but it's not over yet," quipped one wag as Inter injected urgency and a tad more vitality to their quest for a second Champions League title to add to their 2010 crown.
Changes
When the competition was called the European Cup and open only to the winners of the continent's domestic champions, Inter claimed the trophy in 1964 and 1965.
In 1992, the European Cup morphed into the Champions League and the exclusivity was jettisoned. Another revamp has brought a tournament featuring 36 teams playing eight games over four months.
Inter breezed through the league stage between September 2024 and January 2025 to advance automatically to the last-16.
The opponents mastering them in Germany had stuttered and required a two-game play-off to progress to the knockout stages.
PSG's wintry misfortunes seemed a distant memory as they imperiously absorbed Inter's early second-half aggression of a balmy Saturday evening.
And just after the hour mark, the showdown, as it was known or understood, was over.
PSG broke out of defence and Ousmane Dembélé's canny back heel set Vitinha off towards the Inter goal.
Style
The Portugal international cushioned a pass to Doué that complimented Dembélé's flair and Doué's finish past the Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer honoured the preceding panache.
As Doué ripped off his shirt, Le Taylor's finest melodiously belted out: "Et un, et deux et trois zero."
When Khvicha Kvaratskhelia added the fourth in the 73rd minute, they didn't bother to count. They just crowed.
They bellowed some more songs from terraces of the PSG's home ground. And they roared when the cameras zoomed in on the PSG skipper Marquinhos welling up as the achievement of leading the team to its first Champions League trophy and transcendance drew near.
After Senny Mayulu thrashed in the fifth, it was unalloyed joy on the field in Munich as the entire bench ran to celebrate with the 19-year-old PSG academy graduate whose strike had catapulted the club into legend for the biggest win in a final in the competition's 70-year-history.
"It takes PSG's owners nearly 15 years to realise that it's a team that wins and not stars," said Fred Thomas who watched the match with a group of friends including Christian Berg.
Dominance
"It was one way traffic," added Berg who had travelled from Montreuil in eastern Paris to the 10th arrondissement to watch the game at his old local with his football match buddies.
"I moved away from the area six years ago," added the 44-year-old teacher. "But I came back tonight to be with everyone. There really was nowhere else to be."
Apart from Munich.
Nearly five years after featuring in the PSG team that lost in the Champions League final to Bayern Munich, Marquinhos lifted the coveted cup to more cheers, more beers and a few tears in Le Taylor.
"5-0," smiled Thomas. "Extraordinary."
