Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique is “happy“to find his former club FC Barcelona in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, he said on Saturday.”I’m very happy, I’m going home“, launched the Spaniard on the club website.
He spent eight years at Barça as a player (1996-2004), and six years as coach, of the reserve from 2008 to 2011, and of the first team from 2014 to 2017.”We were lucky” in the draw on Friday, he said with a smile a little later during the conference preceding the match in Montpellier, Sunday (8:45 p.m.) for the 26th day of Ligue 1.
“No one will have more ambition than us”
Barcelona is “the city where I spent most of my sporting career and where I feel wonderful, this is very good news“, added Luis Enrique. On a footballing level, “it’s going to be very difficult, it’s a historic club, one of the teams that has won the most Champions Leagues, third with five victories I think (fifth, Real has 14, AC Milan 7, Liverpool and Bayern 6, Editor’s note)”.
“We haven’t won any but that’s our ambition, I think no one will have more ambition than us“, insisted the Parisian technician. Coach of Barça during the famous reversal in the round of 16 of C1 in 2017, 4-0 for PSG in the first leg, 6-1 for Barça in the return, Luis Enrique does not consider this feat as the best moment of his career as a technician.
A chance to be in the final
“No“, he elaborated, “this comeback did not serve to win a new Champions League, Juve took us out (in the quarters). It was a special match, but for there to be a comeback, there was a pre-comeback, PSG won 4-0 in the first leg“.
Luis Enrique, PSG coach
Credit: Getty Images
“You know how the coach (himself, Editor’s note) was treated by the media, they only talk to me about the comeback but two weeks before (three weeks, Editor’s note) we were between life and death, the culprits were the coach and the staff, I remember the 4-0 very well. And 6-1“, said Luis Enrique.
He also noted that there were “two games in this draw, the one with us, Barça, Atlético and Dortmund, we have a chance of being in the final, that’s great but we will have to show it on the pitch, and a game with the favorites, Real, Manchester City the reigning champions and Bayern and Arsenal, perhaps the hardest part of the table to predict“.