Champions League Final Tips: Kvara backed plus 12/1 Budapest Bet Builder

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Cast your mind back to Arsenal's defeat at the Etihad mid-April. Ignore all the silliness involving plastic bottles and focus on a brilliantly constructed defence that was starting to creak.

They had kept only two clean sheets in eight. They were starting to look, well, normal.

Responding to this Mikel Arteta doubled down on his team's biggest strength. He quickly rebuilt the crumbling walls and made his back-line a fortress again.

In the Gunners' final five league outings they faced 10 shots on target. They faced 17 in the five games prior.

From their nadir in Manchester on, across all comps, Arsenal have conceded every 315 minutes.

Is 'tripling-down' a term? If so, that's what we can expect in Hungary, as Arteta attempts to negate one of the most fluid and stylish attacking models around. The Gunners will be compact, a unit first and foremost. PSG will pass and pass, but happy also to go direct, seeking territorial gains to box their opponents in.

It won't, of course, be so straightforward as attack vs defence for the full 90 and 1-0 to the Arsenal is not a bad shout at 8/19.00

It would be the fifth time in seven years when a Champions League final has been decided by that scoreline. In would be the 10th time this season Arsenal have prevailed in such a manner.

Mosquera to overstep the mark

If the newly crowned Premier League champions are to successfully nullify a team that wiped the floor with Inter in this marquee event last year then Khvicha Kvaratskhelia must be stopped.

That's no mean feat at the best of times. Minus Jurrien Timber and Ben White that's an even tougher ask.

Cristhian Mosquera steps in here, switching across to full-back for the fifth time this season and though generally he has performed well in his secondary role he did notably struggle on the only occasion he came up against genuine quality.

At the Etihad, in that defeat to City, the Spanish defender committed four fouls and was booked when duelling with Jeremy Doku.

Kvara on target

Kvaratskhelia is worth staying with, the impactful winger accruing the third best SOT-per-90 ratio of anyone in Ligue 1 in 2025/26.

Having surpassed a club record for Champions League goal involvements in a single campaign (15) the Georgian is undoubtedly PSG's main dangerman from an elite cast of contenders.

Pertinently, the fourth goalscorer in last year's final has registered multiple SOT in 10 of his last 14 appearances but don't be surprised if they occur beyond half-time.

No team took on more shots than the Ligue 1 champions in the French league this term but in the first-half shots table for individuals no PSG player is anywhere to be seen. Kvara, Dembele, Doue and co don't even break into the top 20.

Fouls and saves - 12/113.00 Bet Builder

Miles Lewis' Skelly's reimagining recently into a DM has seen his foul involvements spike considerably. The teenager has started four of Arsenal's last five alongside Declan Rice and has been responsible - one way or the other - for the ref blowing up 15 times.

He has either fouled, or been fouled, every 22.9 minutes.

Speaking of spikes, aside from PSG's fractious final against Bayern in 2020, this fixture doesn't tend to produce many cautions. The last three finals however have seen 16 yellow cards shown, 5.3 per 90.

This brings Marquinhos into play, a player who went through the entirety of the season without getting booked until he encountered the clever movement of Harry Kane in this tournament's semi-final ties. Thereupon he was booked in each game.

Kai Havertz is similarly capable of pulling the Brazilian into areas he doesn't want to be.

Lastly, with PSG averaging 18 shots per game across 2025/26 - Arsenal by comparison have averaged 14 - it's reasonable to expect David Raya to be called into action.

The three-time Golden Glove winner needs to be a hero in Budapest if a fantastic PSG collective are to be downed.

Now read Lewis Jones' Champions League Final tips here