Luis Enrique is hopeful that Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League match against Manchester City on Wednesday will not be their most important game of the season.
The match at the Parc des Princes will see Luis Enrique reunited with Pep Guardiola, with the pair having worked together at Barcelona as players and as managers.
But the meeting has significance as PSG and City have struggled in the competition this year and are at risk of not reaching the knockout stages.
The Parisiens sit 25th in the 36-team standings, having picked up just seven points from their six games, while the Citizens are one point ahead in 22nd.
This will be the fifth meeting between PSG's Luis Enrique and City's Guardiola, with both winning two games each in their Champions League encounters.
However, along with Jurgen Klopp (two), Luis Enrique is one of only two managers to have beaten Guardiola by three or more goals on multiple occasions (3-0 in May 2015 and 4-0 in October 2016), both in charge of Barcelona ).
“Tomorrow is a special match, not only because of the importance between the two teams, but because I will face a friend with whom I have been playing for many years, and we have crossed paths as coaches,” Luis Enrique told reporters on Wednesday. game.
“I hope the most important match is not against Manchester City. I hope that in the next stage of the competition it will be at a very high level with the trophy at stake.”
Only 2 more days before we meet City!
#PSGCITY I #UCL pic.twitter.com/Sw8qKB1aob
— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) January 20, 2025
However, Luis Enrique knows that the penultimate match of PSG's league phase could be crucial in determining both clubs' futures in the competition.
The Parisiens last failed to progress beyond the first stage of the Champions League in 2004-2005, while City last did so in 2012-2013.
“I hope to play more important games, but this is a special game because in the new format of the Champions League, I don't think anyone could have predicted that City would have this number of points before matchday seven,” he said. .
“That's football and that's the new format. At the moment we don't know how many points we need to qualify. Nobody can say. Maybe we will know after this match.”
PSG have suffered defeats to Arsenal and Bayern Munich this season, but Luis Enrique believes their draw against PSV Eindhoven and defeat to Atletico Madrid at the Parc des Princes cost them the most.
They have lost three of their last five Champions League home games (W1 D1), the same number as in their previous 17 games at the Parc des Princes (W11 D3), while Luis Enrique is the only PSG manager to lose as many as three home games. matches in the competition.
“We should have won the games against PSV and Atletico at home. That is the reality,” said Luis Enrique.
“On the field there were two games that we should have won, but football is not that simple. With those five points we would already qualify for the next round.”
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