Enrique does not hide his ambition to win four titles with PSG

Germany Before the Champions League semi-final against Dortmund, coach Luis Enrique affirmed that PSG has great motivation to win all four titles this season.

Last weekend, PSG won Ligue 1 with three rounds to spare to dominate France for the third time in a row. They won the French Super Cup, will face Lyon in the French Cup final on May 25 and play Dortmund in the Champions League semi-finals.

Ahead of the semi-final first leg at Signal Iduna Park today, Enrique insisted PSG were at the beginning of a project, with improvements to be made but was pleased they still had a chance of winning everything. "Winning the quadruple? Of course we talk about it. That's motivation," he said confidently. "That's how we make history for the club, but the most important thing is how we play to win."

Coach Luis Enrique talks with Lee Kang-in and Kylian Mbappe during PSG's match against Le Havre in Ligue I at Parc des Princes on April 27, 2024. Photo: Reuters. — Coach Luis Enrique talks with Lee Kang-in and Kylian Mbappe during PSG's match against Le Havre in Ligue I at Parc des Princes on April 27, 2024. Photo: *Reuters.*

Since being taken over by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), PSG have risen to dominate the domestic scene, winning Ligue 1 ten times in the last 12 seasons, but have yet to win the Champions League. The Parisian capital club's best achievement in Europe's top club competition was reaching the final in 2020, where they lost 0-1 to Bayern.

On the possibility of helping PSG win the Champions League for the first time, Enrique said: "This is the biggest tournament in Europe with the remaining four teams all capable of reaching the final. So we need to manage our emotions, control the pressure and play well. But we should not be intimidated by that pressure. I think PSG are about to enter the perfect phase of the season."

PSG have the youngest squad of the four Champions League semi-finalists, but Enrique does not see this as a disadvantage. "Age is not important, we see that in all sports. Young players are ready to compete," the Spaniard said. "I never line up a team thinking about the age of the players. If they have the quality, I don't care if they are 55 or 26. Young players are even a motivation, a positive thing for the future of the club."

PSG are unbeaten in their two group stage meetings with Dortmund this season. They won 2-0 at home at the Parc des Princes thanks to goals from Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi. In the return match at Signal Iduna Park, Karim Adeyemi opened the scoring for Dortmund, before 18-year-old midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery secured a draw for PSG.

But striker Goncalo Ramos believes PSG have improved a lot since then. "I think we play better together than we did against Dortmund in the group stage because we had more time to play and get to know each other," the Portuguese forward said. "There are a lot of new players who joined the team before this season who had never played together, but now the team is more like a family. In the group stage, we didn't have the strongest squad."

Hong Duy

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