Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique expressed his relief at facing Inter Milan in the Champions League final, instead of his former club, Barcelona. The final will be played on May 31.
Despite this, Luis Enrique admitted that he would have “loved” for Barça to reach the final if his team had been eliminated.
To be honest, playing a Champions League final against Barcelona would have been the worst thing for me.
Luis Enrique
These were his words after his team’s 2-1 victory against Arsenal at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday, which secured PSG’s passage with an aggregate score of 3-1.
Luis Enrique, former Barcelona player, led the Catalan club to Champions League glory in 2015.
Barça suffered a painful defeat in the semi-finals against Inter. Hansi Flick’s team came back from two goals down to lead 3-2 in the match at the San Siro, with an aggregate score of 6-5, already in added time. However, a goal by Francesco Acerbi in the 93rd minute forced extra time, where Davide Frattesi sealed Inter’s victory with an aggregate score of 7-6.
When asked if Barcelona’s elimination hurt him, Luis Enrique replied:
Without a doubt, because if you tell someone that after scoring six goals in a semi-final you are eliminated, you don’t believe it. Clearly they could have been in the final and they should have been in the final.
Luis Enrique
Now, Luis Enrique hopes to replicate his success with Barça and lead PSG to their first European title at the Allianz Arena, in what will be the club’s second Champions League final.
PSG lost 1-0 against Bayern Munich in 2020.
This is an exciting project. It’s very different from the one I had in Barcelona because in Barcelona I had to get a team that was already working well to work well again. I think we achieved that comfortably.
Luis Enrique
Here (at PSG), it’s about creating a team and, even if players leave, still believing that we can turn young players into stars.
Luis Enrique
Since Kylian Mbappé’s departure, who joined Real Madrid as a free agent last summer, Luis Enrique has built a team with young stars that have yielded results.
PSG won Ligue 1 last month and can now complete the treble if they beat Reims in the Coupe de France final on May 24, before facing Inter Milan in the Champions League final in Munich a week later.
Now we have many stars on the team and, in that sense, I feel very good and very happy.
Luis Enrique
