In an attempt to relieve his team’s anxiety ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League semifinal second leg against Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique said his team doesn’t need to win by two goals in order to reach the final.
With a goal from Niclas Fuellkrug giving Dortmund a narrow victory in Germany, PSG needs to overcome a 1-0 deficit from the first leg last week.
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“The objective is not to play to win by two goals, it is just to win.
“You can’t afford to think about having to win by two goals,” Luis Enrique told reporters on Monday, weighing up the possibility of the tie being decided in extra time and even penalties.
“We need to score one first of all, and win the match.”
PSG hopes to replicate its incredible performance from the first leg, where they lost 3-2 at home to Barcelona but advanced with a 4-1 victory in the second leg despite giving up the first goal in Spain.
“It doesn’t matter if we concede – it happened against Barcelona – we’ll just need to stay calm,” the Spaniard added.
Additionally, he stated that forcing Kylian Mbappe to drop deeper to get on the ball was not the only way to increase his involvement in the game.
Though he failed to have much of an impact in Dortmund last week, Mbappe has scored 43 goals for PSG this season, including two in the second leg of the team’s elimination round match against Real Sociedad and two more away in Barcelona.
“Our objective is that our best players participate. The more they take part in the game the better it is,” he said.
“But I want my strikers to be touching the ball in the areas where they can make a difference. I want him to get on the ball where he can be dangerous.”
Dortmund used a starting lineup that featured ten changes from the one that faced PSG a few days prior to defeat Augsburg 5-1 in the Bundesliga to warm up for the second leg.
PSG, on the other hand, had a free weekend as the French league rescheduled their away match against Nice to May 15 to help them prepare.
“Obviously in life there is not only work. You need to also do things outside of work to be better at your job,” Luis Enrique said.
“I love sport, I love cycling, playing padel – we have a court here – I like having leisure time, and professionally it has been a good week too.
“We have had time to analyse, we have had training sessions focusing on defence and on attack, and today it will be a normal session on the eve of a game, a bit more relaxed.
“We are thinking about how lucky we are to be playing in a semifinal.”
PSG hopes to advance to their second Champions League final, having fallen to Bayern Munich in Lisbon, 2020 by a score of 1-0.
Although they had never taken home the trophy, Luis Enrique stated he was ready for the possibility of a heartbreaking loss.
“Life will continue and when the sun shines in Paris it is always marvellous.
“If we lose we will congratulate them and we will wake up again the next day.
“We might be disgusted, but we will be proud and will say to ourselves that we will get up again and try to get to the final next year.”