Spurs Suffer Super Cup Heartbreak as PSG Strike Late and Win on Penalties
Tottenham led by two through Van de Ven and Romero, but late goals from Lee and Ramos took the tie to a shootout where PSG claimed the trophy
Spurs, so close to a statement night, undone by late PSG rally and shootout edges
The UEFA Super Cup in Udine was supposed to be a marker for Tottenham under Thomas Frank, a clean early chance to put a trophy on the sideboard and show that all the talk of hard edges and clear structure had substance. For eighty five minutes it looked exactly that. Then PSG did what trophy teams do, they stayed alive, they landed two late punches, and they walked away with the cup after penalties. Paris Saint Germain 2-2 Tottenham, Paris winning 4-3 in the shootout, a scoreline that told the story of both bravery and regret. The details matter, and they were brutal. Micky van de Ven on thirty nine minutes, Cristian Romero on forty eight minutes, Lee Kang in on eighty five, and Gonçalo Ramos in the fourth minute of stoppage time. The clincher in the shootout came from Nuno Mendes. The decisive Tottenham misses came from Mathys Tel, wide, and Van de Ven, saved by Lucas Chevalier. Those are the facts, those are the fine lines that separate a parade from a long walk back to the dressing room.
Tottenham’s plan worked, until it did not
Frank’s set piece focus was early and obvious. Tottenham were direct when the moment asked, they were organised from dead balls, and they squeezed space in front of their defence with the sort of discipline that travels well on big European nights. The opener came from exactly that route. João Palhinha’s strike was touched onto the bar by Chevalier, Van de Ven reacted first and forced it in from close range on thirty nine minutes. It was a scruffy goal with a pure competitive heart, the kind that often sets the tone in finals. Three minutes after half time the pattern repeated, a deep delivery from Pedro Porro picked out Romero, who peeled away, got up early, and crashed a downward header across Chevalier for two nil on forty eight minutes. Tottenham had the game where they wanted it, and they had a grip of the middle after the restart too.
There were platform performances everywhere for Frank. The back line dominated aerially for long stretches, the midfield shuffled across the lanes with purpose, and the front line ran selflessly to keep PSG turning. If you were scoring it on the hour, you would have said Tottenham looked mature, composed, and ninety per cent of the way to lifting a European pot.
PSG’s late surge and the psychology of big nights
Finals tilt on momentum, and PSG found theirs with five minutes to go. Lee Kang in stepped in off the right and hit through the ball from the edge, low and true, past Guglielmo Vicario on eighty five minutes. The belief that had looked drained from Paris came flooding back. Six minutes went up on the board. Tottenham had to be calm, clear, and ruthless in their decisions with and without the ball. Instead, they sank a few yards, they stopped clearing their lines early, and they allowed Ousmane Dembélé the one clean moment he had been looking for. Deep into added time, Dembélé whipped an inviting cross, Ramos launched himself and glanced home the equaliser on ninety plus four. A dagger to the ribs for a team who had done most things right.
Luis Enrique said afterwards that Tottenham had been the better side for the majority of the match, that football can be unfair, and that Paris had ridden their luck in the final moments. The admission felt honest and it chimed with what the eyes had told us. But fairness is a concept for debates, not medal tables. PSG stayed in the contest, found quality under pressure, and earned the right to go to penalties.
Penalties, margins, and a debutant’s redemption
Shootouts can skew heroic and cruel in a matter of kicks. Chevalier, thrust into the spotlight in place of Gianluigi Donnarumma, had a mixed night, yet he guessed right when it mattered and denied Van de Ven in the shootout. Tel went wide with his effort. Vitinha missed for Paris, which opened a window for Spurs, but they could not climb through it. Nuno Mendes walked up and swept in the clincher, and with that, PSG became Super Cup winners. Firsts matter in club histories, and this was Paris claiming the competition for the first time, and the first French side to do so, a footnote that will sting a little more for Tottenham.
Where Tottenham were good
There was a lot to admire in the shape and the intent. Set pieces were a weapon, not a fallback. The back three looked in tune with what Frank wants, aggressive on first contacts, sensible with distances, and brave at both posts. The press was measured rather than wild, with traps set on the flanks and a clear plan to force Paris into longer passes than they like. In possession, Tottenham showed patience when Paris sank, and they were happy to turn the French back line when the angles were not there. On another night, that balance closes the game out at two nil and the ribbons are white.
Player by player, there were standouts that tally with the ratings conversation elsewhere, Romero’s presence, Richarlison’s work without the ball, and the industry of the midfield trio. Even in defeat, those individual notes point to a base level and an identity that will travel into the league campaign.
Where it slipped
Two themes will bother Frank when he rewinds this with his staff. First, the management of the final ten minutes. The team sank into its box a touch early, distances stretched, and clearances invited the next wave rather than ending it. Second, the inability to turn promising counters into slow, suffocating possession when PSG were reeling. Big European sides survive by manipulating tempo. For most of the evening Tottenham did that well, then they could not find the pause button when the stadium grew frantic.
None of this rewrites the broader performance. It does, however, underline the gap between being competitive on the night and being champions at the whistle.
Frank’s takeaways for the season
If this was billed as a test of Tottenham’s new personality, they actually passed much of it. Defensive structure, tick. Variety at set plays, tick. A front line willing to graft, tick. The next step is adding the professional nastiness that kills off big games. There are practical tweaks in that. A fresh pair of legs in midfield for the last twenty, an instruction to run the ball to the corners and win contacts, a cooler head from the bench in the shouts and signals that tell a team exactly when to reset.
Frank will also know that confidence can survive a night like this if the story is told honestly in the dressing room. You were the better side for most of the match, the goals you conceded were preventable not inevitable, and your patterns hurt a top level opponent. That is not sugar coating, that is the truest reading of the contest.
Credit where it is due
Paris had the mentality and the bench to change the picture. Lee and Ramos came on, they brought energy and precision, and they delivered the two moments that kept the trophy in play. Dembélé was quiet, then decisive with one cross. Chevalier, under the glare, found a save when the whole night hung in the balance. It was not flowing Paris, it was stubborn Paris, and that version still knows how to collect silver.
What the night tells us about Tottenham
It tells us that the underlying work is already visible. It tells us this squad has a route to winning matches against elite opponents, and that the pain will be productive if they let it. It also tells us that the culture Frank is trying to set will be judged on repeatable behaviours, not one night of chaos at the end. If Tottenham carry the first eighty five minutes into the early league fixtures, this will feel less like a scar and more like a lesson.
Keep the standards you showed for most of Udine. Keep the variety from dead balls. Keep the running and the patience in the middle third. Then add the calm that big winners carry into those final minutes. Do that, and this will be remembered as the night a good team found out exactly what it must add to become a great one.