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Doue starts over Barcola, Pavard returns for Inter in UCL final

Michael Regan - UEFA / UEFA / Getty

Desire Doue is preferred to Bradley Barcola in the Paris Saint-Germain attack for Saturday's Champions League final against Inter Milan, while French international defender Benjamin Pavard comes into the Italian team's line-up.

Barcola scored twice for PSG in their 3-0 win over Reims in last weekend's French Cup final and has found the net a total of 21 times this season.

However, he will begin on the bench at the Allianz Arena, as the 19-year-old Doue joins leading marksman Ousmane Dembele -- scorer of 33 goals this season -- and Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the front line for the French double winners.

The rest of coach Luis Enrique's starting XI is as expected as PSG aim to win the Champions League for the first time in their history.

Inter make just one change to the team which started against Barcelona in the second leg of the semi-finals as Pavard replaces Yann Bisseck in their three-man defence.

Pavard, who used to turn out at the Allianz Arena for Bayern Munich, has not played in a month due to an ankle injury which kept him out of both legs of the tie against Barcelona.

Seven of the Inter starting team also lined up against Manchester City in the 2023 final which the Italians lost 1-0, the exceptions being goalkeeper Yann Sommer, Pavard, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marcus Thuram.

Inter are bidding to win their fourth European Cup and a first since 2010.

Starting lineups:

Paris Saint-Germain (4-3-3)

Gianluigi Donnarumma; Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos (capt), Willian Pacho, Nuno Mendes; Joao Neves, Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz; Desire Doue, Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia

Coach: Luis Enrique (ESP)

Inter Milan (3-5-2)

Yann Sommer; Benjamin Pavard, Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni; Denzel Dumfries, Nicolo Barella, Hakan Calhanoglu, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Federico Dimarco; Lautaro Martinez (capt), Marcus Thuram

Coach: Simone Inzaghi (ITA)

Referee: Istvan Kovacs (ROM)

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