Paris Saint-Germain, after securing their place in the Champions League final with a 3-1 aggregate victory over Arsenal, has completed a remarkable season by defeating all the Premier League teams they faced.
After winning the first leg 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium, PSG sealed their passage at the Parc des Princes thanks to goals from Fabián Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi, despite Bukayo Saka’s goal for Arsenal in the 76th minute.
After conquering the Ligue 1 title last month, PSG could achieve 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.
Upon being informed that PSG has reached the Champions League final, the club’s second appearance after losing to Bayern Munich in Lisbon in 2020, after defeating four Premier League teams (Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal), Luis Enrique joked about the success of the “farmers’ league”, a derogatory term applied to Ligue 1.
“The farmers’ league, right? We are the farmers’ league,” Luis Enrique told TNT Sports. “But it’s nice. We enjoy the result and the compliments from everyone talking about our team, our mentality, how we play. It’s nice.
Mikel Arteta is a great friend, but I don’t agree at all [that Arsenal deserved to win]. They play how they want and love to play, but in the two matches we have scored more goals than them and that is the most important thing.
Luis Enrique
«Arsenal played a great game and we suffered a lot, but we deserve to reach the final.
How are you going to win a Champions League without a great goalkeeper? Today, Gigi [Gianluigi Donnarumma] was phenomenal, as he was in every qualifying round, as against Liverpool.
How are you going to win the Champions League without a good defense? They were phenomenal today.
PSG lost three of their first five league phase matches and it seemed they were going to be out of the competition in January.
But Luis Enrique, who led Barcelona to Champions League glory in 2015, said that the 4-2 victory against Man City in Paris in January was the turning point of their campaign.
“The turning point could have been the match against Manchester City in which we were losing 0-2,” said Luis Enrique.
But in the group stage statistics, we were among the best in Europe. We are fair finalists.
It means a lot. Everyone dreamed of reaching a Champions League final and our first goal when we arrived in Paris was to make history and we are on the right track.
PSG will face Inter in the final after the Serie A champion eliminated Barcelona in their semifinal, and Luis Enrique stated that it will be a difficult match for his team.
“Inter have more experience than us, older players, but we want to win trophies and we will have that mentality for the final,” said Luis Enrique.
It’s going to be tough, but they will have the same final. An interesting final, very difficult for both teams. A special moment for us and for them too.
It’s their second final in three years, so they are a great team. We have time to plan, but now it’s time to celebrate.
