Paris Saint-Germain are one win away from completing the perfect season, but Luis Enrique insists this hasn’t been his finest coaching year, even after delivering the club’s first-ever Champions League title, Softfootball reports.
PSG, already crowned Ligue 1 and Champions League winners, face Chelsea in Sunday’s Club World Cup final with the chance to secure a historic treble. But Enrique was quick to highlight the challenge ahead, praising both Chelsea and their manager, Enzo Maresca.
As reported by the UK Guardian, Enrique buttressed that winning the Club World Cup will grant them a great football year.
“Winning the Champions League was a huge moment for this club; it was our biggest goal when I joined.”
Enrique said in his final pre-match press conference of the season that the French giant is 90 minutes away from winning another trophy, but they are calm.
“Now we’re 90 minutes away from another trophy, but Chelsea are not a team you take lightly. I admire Maresca, his teams always want the ball, they press, they attack, and they have a collective spirit that reminds me of us. They’ve had a fantastic season.”
Chelsea head into the final having already lifted the Europa Conference League and finishing fourth in the Premier League. Despite PSG being favourites, Enrique warned against complacency:
“This won’t be easy. We’ll need total focus if we want to finish the season in the best way.”
While many view this as a crowning moment, Enrique played down talk of personal accolades.
“I’ve had better seasons as a coach when we didn’t win trophies. I don’t believe in individual awards, not for me, not for anyone.”
he said.
As the curtain of the Club World Cup winds down on Sunday, Softfootball had earlier recounted the success of the competition despite the wide range of criticism from several football leaders in the world.
Softfootball captured the reactions of former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, who has pushed back at Jürgen Klopp’s recent criticism of the revamped FIFA Club World Cup, backing the 32-team tournament as necessary for the global game.
Wenger said most participating clubs would want to participate again despite the criticism. PSG and Chelsea will face off at the MetLife Stadium in Orlando on Sunday.
