Luis Enrique believes that winning the Champions League last season had a transforming effect on Paris Saint-Germain, which is to be aware of his players with a new confidence that the club can propel to a successful title defense.
For the first time, PSG claimed the largest prize in European football with the victory over Internazionale in Allianz Arena van Munich three and a half months ago.
The side of Luis Enrique starts with their search to keep the trophy against Serie A Side Atalanta on Wednesday evening, and the 55-year-old Spaniard is convinced that even the absence of influential attackers Ousmane Dembélé and Désiré Doué, both of whom have sustained muscle injuries, can stimulate his players.
‘We are convinced that we have a chance to win this trophy again’
“For me it is more difficult to win the first than the second or third,” said Luis Enrique, with a shaved head and a shoulder sling after having undergone an operation on a broken collarbone after a bicycle accident earlier this month.
“The first title is always difficult, because the players do not think they are able to win it. But we have shown the way. Now the entire PSG and the young players want to win because they know they are capable of.
“I don’t have to do anything, the players are just as ambitious as last season. Last year I said the players enjoy football, and it is easy for me to motivate them. We are convinced that we get the chance to win this trophy again.”
History suggests that it will not be easy; In 2018, Real Madrid became the only team that the European Cup defended since the Milan of Arrigo Sacchi in 1990. Yet there is a clear feeling that the PSG process has changed since that intoxicating night in Munich, when they brought five in the past to place frustration behind them for years.
‘It’s my mentality to seek improvement’
Despite a 3-0 defeat through the hands of Chelsea, this summer, the Run to the club world cup final offered further proof of the club’s progress, and it would be a big surprise if there was a repetition of last year when they had to go through the play-offs to reach the Knock-Outrours of the Top of the Top and one drawer and one drawer and one drawer and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawer works and one drawered.
“It is in my mentality to look for improvement, to show the players that there is no complacency about the future,” said Luis Enrique. “After winning the European title, our goal, and also the goal of the club, the city and our fans, to write history again and to win the Champions League for the second time in a row. We have to be ambitious.”
After opalanta, PSG will travel to Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen next month before organizing Bayern Munich and Tottenham in November. They will complete the competition phase with visits to Athletic Bilbao and Sporting CP, before Newcastle visits the Parc des Princes at the end of January.
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