Three European finals: who wins, who loses, and what it all says about a growing elitism
Top-30 global clubs Tottenham and Manchester United face off next week before Chelsea play Betis then world No3 PSG take on No6 Inter to be the kings of Europe
The three European club finals of 2025 get underway next Wednesday, 21 May, when Tottenham and Manchester United meet in the Europa League final in Bilbao.
That’s followed by the UEFA Conference League final between Chelsea and Real Betis in Wrocław, Poland, on Wednesday 28 May, before the continental club season climaxes when PSG face Internazionale in the Champions League final at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Saturday 31 May.
Today’s piece will preview all three matches, both “traditionally” and, experimentally, via Artificial Intelligence. It wasn’t so long ago I thought that most free AI tools were clunky and unconvincing although in recent months, I’m minded to think they’re coming on in leaps and bounds.
That doesn’t mean their predictions for the three finals will be correct, of course, although both the tools I’ve used for this purpose - GROK and ChatGPT - both agree who will win each of the three finals.
Their respective explanations and logic are included below in full, in separate PDF documents for each of the finals.
Talking of ChatGPT, it took that AI tool a matter of seconds to generate the picture below of the six managers who will be involved in the three upcoming European club finals, in the style of Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’.
I think it’s pretty good - and generous particularly to Enzo Maresca, whose likeness (and hair) has clearly been taken from his playing days at West Brom!
As well as previewing the three finals in this piece, I will also:
Consider the current top 20 football teams (and select others) in the world by ranking, and explore why there is a logic to the particular ranking system I’ve used. (OPTA’s, for what it’s worth).
Provide you with a detailed graphic that shows what each of those top teams have achieved this season in their domestic leagues, as well as in continental competitions and in domestic cups.
Demonstrate just how limited the pool of realistic contenders has become for European club silverware, even in the “lesser” events.
Give you the remarkable data that shows how European football is becoming less and less competitive, and how the vast majority of clubs in the vast majority of Europe’s 55 football nations have close to zero realistic chance of winning a top trophy. And how it doesn’t need to be like that - if the authorities and fans had the will to take the beautiful game back to the masses. (And yes, I know that horse has bolted, but we can dream).
Without further ado, we’ll get straight into the lowdown on the three finals, in order of importance.