If Paris Saint-Germain's maiden triumph last year allowed the French club to break its Champions League hoodoo, winning the title again this season would allow it to be remembered as one of Europe's all-time great teams.

Twelve months after crushing Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich to claim the trophy with the biggest final win in European Cup history, PSG heads to Budapest to face Premier League champion Arsenal.

Stopping Luis Enrique's thrilling PSG side has proved an impossible task for just about everyone over the last 18 months, from Pep Guardiola's Manchester City to the seemingly unbeatable Bayern Munich in their recent semifinal clash.

Arsenal tried, and failed, in last season's semis, and the Parisians are the favorites to retain their title this time.

"We understand that we are the reigning champions and we can win again," Khvicha Kvaratskhelia said in an interview with UEFA.

"Of course, this will be difficult, but we've proved, once more, that we can beat any team as long as we play our way and give our all on the pitch," added the Georgian winger, who is arguably the best player in this season's Champions League with seven goals and three assists in the knockout rounds.

When Enrique, a Champions League winner with Barcelona in 2015, arrived in 2023, PSG was transitioning away from the era of highly paid superstar players.

Lionel Messi and Neymar left that same summer, ending underwhelming spells in the French capital. Kylian Mbappe departed a year later.

PSG had been completely transformed since the Qatari takeover of the club in 2011, but — one run to the final in 2020 and a semifinal in 2021 apart — it had become associated with frequent disappointment in the Champions League, and occasional humiliation.

Enrique has overseen a radical change, completely altering perceptions of the club outside of France.

'Still things to be achieved'

PSG was almost once seen as a little bit of a joke in Europe, due to its enormous spending and lack of continental success.

Now, it is taken very seriously and has won admirers for the breathtaking soccer played by an exciting young team, built with the transfer market nous of its "soccer advisor" Luis Campos and coached by Enrique.

"He is a top-class coach with clear ideas. He is full of energy. He is exceptional and we hope he stays for a very long time," said Ousmane Dembele.

The France forward has been transformed from a dazzling but often wasteful winger into a prolific striker.

He scored 35 times last season and won the Ballon d'Or. This season, his minutes have been carefully managed amid numerous fitness scares, but he has still scored 19 goals and set up 11 more in just 24 starts.

Dembele, at 29, is the fourth-oldest player in the squad, behind only Fabian Ruiz, Lucas Hernandez (both 30) and 32-year-old captain Marquinhos.

The youthful energy all over the team allows it to play with a terrifying intensity that has blown away most opponents.

Things might not be so easy against Arsenal, but PSG has already reached three consecutive semifinals under Enrique.

Reaching consecutive UCL finals is incredibly hard, but retaining the title is almost impossible.

Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid, which won three on the bounce from 2016-18, is the only side to have gone back-to-back in the modern Champions League era — before that you have to go back to Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan in 1989 and 1990.

In a French context, the country had only ever produced one Champions League winner before last season, with Marseille in 1993.

This is not a fairytale story for a club backed by the wealth of Qatar and with the fourth-highest revenue in world soccer last year, according to the Deloitte Football Money League, behind only Real, Barcelona and Bayern.

But, it shows it did the right thing in abandoning the old superstar project, even if plenty of its current squad — Dembele, Kvaratskhelia, Vitinha, Achraf Hakimi — could now be considered as such.

The true superstar, though, is the coach, and Enrique can become just the fifth manager to win three European Cups after Carlo Ancelotti, Bob Paisley, Zidane and Guardiola.

"When I came to the club I said my objective was to make history," he told UEFA.com.

"We want to keep writing history, because we feel there are still things to be achieved."