'PSG are too good' - Rob Green on Arsenal, Champions League final and 2026 World Cup

GOAL: With the Champions League this season, what have you made of it? What are your main takeaways as a whole?

GREEN: The main takeaway is the league phase has become more important. You look at how Arsenal have got to the final, and you wonder: Would they have got there if they'd have finished seventh? Because of the draw, the toughest team they played was Atletico Madrid, who didn't perform in 135 of the 180 minutes.

Barcelona knocked themselves out by having two players sent off. That side of the draw opened up for Arsenal. You compare that to the other side of the draw. You compare how Arsenal approached the group stage and the quality they showed to dominate many of those matches and win in the league phase.

It's interesting. It's about the timing of the season and the timing of when you make your run, and PSG did it again. It's really fascinating how different teams go about it.

GOAL:And you should be rewarded for winning the league phase, right? The counterargument, though, is that Liverpool ran away with it and then ran into PSG ...

GREEN: The counterargument to that is, let's not have a league phase. Let's just have a knockout competition, no seeding, and you get who you get over two legs, and that's it. The way the league phase went, the way the teams were drawn. The first season we had the league phase, a lot of games finished, and you had players sort of shrugging. They didn't know what it meant. Now I think teams will go "crikey, next year, let's go at it. Let's win these games. We don't want to get on that side of the draw."

GOAL: It seems like so long ago, but what did you make of that Bayern-PSG semifinal?

GREEN: It was two coaches who said "this is our strength and I've backed my teams in the strengths that they've got." It doesn't matter who we play, and that in itself is pretty incredible, to have the firepower to do that. It doesn't matter whether you're Hoffenheim or you're PSG, we will go at you. It was brilliant. What the second leg showed was Luis Enrique just going, "we don't want to get into that kind of fight again." And then actually showing an adaptability. Bayern playing at their best are a match for anyone. PSG playing in any way are a match for anyone. I also think that second leg sent a message to Arsenal to say, "We can mix it as well."

GOAL: That second leg maybe suggested that PSG can mix it with Arsenal's defensive tactics, then?

GREEN: Absolutely. You want to hit us on the break? We've got the tools to deal with it. I think that semifinal showed them, you know, all of a sudden they kept five men behind the ball when they had it, and then went, "well, we can pick you apart with four players, we don't have to send eight up front," we can, we can do it with four, and they proceeded to. I found the second leg equally as fascinating, in a tactical sense, as the first leg.

GOAL: So what kind of a final are you expecting? Do PSG go for it?

GREEN: Arteta has this XI that he trusts. But what he does have is probably someone on the bench who scored a Champions League final winner, Kai Havertz. If he needs half an hour, if he needs 20 minutes to get in, to stay in the game, or to get a goal back, send on Havertz, send on Odegaard. We'll make something happen now. You look at that, you, you look at that second leg against Bayern. You look at the Champions League final last year, Inter were already a goal behind. That's the crux of it for Arsenal: Can you play a defensively perfect game?

GOAL: Do you think Arsenal will manage it? Or are PSG too good?

GREEN: No. PSG are too good. Arsenal have been brilliant at beating the mid-table, lower-table teams. hey haven't had a perfect run against the big, big teams. These guys, PSG, would beat every Premier League team. Arsenal have got to believe that there's that sort of one-in-10 opportunity. You play the game 10 times, you're going to win this twice.

GOAL: So, England at the World Cup? What do you think?

GREEN: My overriding thought so far is: who knows? This is such a large tournament. Forty-eight teams. How many games do you have to win it? I mean, Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in the last one in the first game. The team that sets out in the opening game is never going to be the team that wins it. You just find things that don't work. Look at England in the last Euros, you look at Trent [Alexander-Arnold] coming into midfield, kind of toying with things whilst tournaments going on.

France has got such a strong forward line, so many options, they could fill the 25-man squad with about 24 front-line players. It's incredible what they've got at their disposal. It's very difficult to see beyond them, but, you look at the Club World Cup last year, Musiala snapping his leg in one of the games, all of a sudden one of your star men's down. Mbappe has got a dickey knee, we all know that. You could have a game in Mexico one day and two days later a game in New York. The differences are just wild.

When we played in South Africa, we have one game at Cape Town at sea level, and then the next one was on top of a mountain. That difference is pretty incredible. So there are so many variables, such a long tournament, it's going to be difficult to work out, so much man management, game management.

There are so many teams that haven't qualified for a World Cup before. Are Cape Verde going to put up a test? Or Curacao? It's just going to be sort of a wild ride.

GOAL:And if you had to pick a winner?

GREEN: France. They've got the best frontline. You've got umpteen options up there. It's as good a guess as any.