The Parisian coach takes stock after his team’s defeat at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday against Bayern Munich (1-0).
The match : “In the first half, we weren’t very far away, but we couldn’t overcome their pressing, they recovered the ball much too easily, our pressing wasn’t good enough. We couldn’t recover the ball in the opponent’s half and we were very inferior in this first period. At the start of the second period, there was reason to hope, we managed to create danger in the first 15 minutes, but with the red, which was a serious error on our part, it was obviously more complicated … We stayed in the match anyway, and until the end, but Bayern deserved their victory. Anger? Frustration because I didn’t see my players able to change things in the first half.”
The starting lineup : “These decisions are my responsibility, I assume them.”
The choice of Matfey Safonov in goals : “The goal is for all players to be ready to play. We knew Bayern would do this type of pressing and I thought Safonov was best suited to overcome that and generate superiority. But everything I see in this match, and the defeats in particular, gives information about players with a future, if there is a future. It provides necessary information about everyone in order to know where we are going. (We ask him to specify if he is talking about his future at the head of PSG) I was talking about the future in general. Each match, each thing that I see in the matches, allows me to have information about PSG in this project that we are starting. Everything I see is very important, it gives information for the future, a future that I envisage to make us stronger over the years. I am responsible for all these decisions, the good and the bad. But once again, it gives a lot of information about who is playing, who is present in each match, who has a level that sometimes drops, who is performing well, who is not.
The expulsion of Ousmane Dembélé : “I have nothing to say about the refereeing. I have never said anything about refereeing in my entire coaching career.”
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PSG’s notes in Munich: Safonov is in trouble, Barcola is non-existent, Vitinha is floating
There are three matches left, we will have to win them, otherwise we will not qualify.
Luis Enrique
Qualification : “Three defeats in five C1 matches? You are talking about three defeats but I am talking about the three matches that remain to be played and which we will have to win, otherwise we will not qualify. We lost at home against teams who played less well than us (draw against Eindhoven and defeat against Atlético, Editor’s note). All I can say is ‘on the attack for the remaining matches’.”
If we can take the time to build in a club like PSG : “Being PSG coach is a great privilege. I put more pressure on myself than anyone. I’m not here to pass the time, that wasn’t the case for my predecessors either, but to win as many titles as possible. I’m not talking about winning titles in the future but right now. All the information I glean is very useful.”
Comments collected at a press conference
