The French double winners face Inter Milan in Saturday’s final.
Paris St Germain Luis Enrique has challenged his players to make history on Saturday’s Champions League final (Adam Davy/PA)open image in gallery
Paris St Germain Luis Enrique has challenged his players to make history on Saturday’s Champions League final (Adam Davy/PA) (PA Wire)
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Paris St Germain boss Luis Enrique has challenged his players to write themselves into the club’s history by winning the Champions League.
French champions PSG face Serie A runners-up Inter Milan at Munich’s Allianz Arena on Saturday evening with European club football’s biggest prize at stake.
Enrique insists his team deserves to be in the final, but knows all their efforts will ultimately count for nothing if they do not go on to end their wait for the trophy they have craved for so long.
Enrique told the club’s official website: “We all want to make history and to win Paris St Germain’s first-ever Champions League.
“Winning a trophy for the first time is always the hardest, but that’s what motivates me. There are only two teams and one game left, and I think that we can be proud of what we’ve accomplished, but we need to finish the job because our aim is to go down in history.
“Our team deserves to experience this final. I have no doubts about the fact that Paris St Germain’s fans and the club itself deserve to win this trophy.
“I don’t know if it’ll happen on May 31, a year later or two, three or four years later, but I hope that we’ll be the first ones to write that history because that’s what’s motivated us since we first set foot in Paris.”
Enrique has presided over significant change at the Parc des Princes since his arrival in July 2023 with superstars Lionel Messi – the Argentinian’s departure had been announced in advance – Neymar and Kylian Mbappe all leaving as part of a rebuild.
His efforts have been rewarded with a youthful team which has secured a Ligue 1 and Coupe de France double already this season with the biggest prize still up for grabs.
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Enrique said: “We all know that we want a long-term project, but when you’ve worked in football for a pretty long time, you know that you don’t have the luxury of waiting or of thinking, ‘We’ll win a title next season’, because next season, another team might be better than yours. We need to win now and to be aiming for titles from day one.”
PSG, who were beaten by Bayern Munich in the 2020 final, have dominated domestic football in France in recent years, but Champions League success has remained elusive.
This season’s campaign has been far from straightforward – they needed to win their final three league phase matches against RB Salzburg, Manchester City and Stuttgart to book a last-16 play-off against Brest, and then edged past Premier League rivals Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal to make it to Munich.
Enrique said: “If we had to analyse everything that’s happened in the Champions League this season, I think that it would make for a great film because there’s been a bit of everything.
“Thanks to the quality and the growth of our players and despite a difficult schedule with games against some very big teams, we managed to go through.”