Paris St-Germain coach, Luis Enrique has revealed his plans to defeat Dortmund on Tuesday in order to qualify for the Champions League final.
PSG have their work cut out in France after losing the first leg of the semi-final clash in Germany 1-0 courtesy of Niclas Fuellkrug’s strike.
Enrique has urged his players to stay calm and not worry about winning by two goals to overturn the first leg deficit.
He said: “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.
He added, “We need to score one first of all, and win the match.”
PSG produced a stunning performance to overcome a 3-2 defeat against Barcelona in the first leg of the quarter-final encounter last month, They advanced with a 4-1 win in Spain and Enrique is hoping for a similar performance.
“It doesn’t matter if we concede – it happened against Barcelona – we’ll just need to stay calm,” he added.
PSG’s star player, Kylian Mbappe struggled in the first leg in Germany, Enrique believes the French striker needs to be involved more to allow him wreck havoc.
He said: “Our objective is that our best players participate. The more they take part in the game the better it is.
“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 warmed up for the clash with a 5-1 win over Augsburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday, while PSG enjoyed a huge time off after the French Ligue 1 postponed their league match with Nice to enable them to prepare for the Champions League encounter.
The former Barcelona coach admitted that the time off enabled his coaching staff to perfect tactics ahead of the game on Tuesday.
Enrique said: “Obviously in life there is not only work. You need to also do things outside of work to be better at your job.
“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 are aiming for their first Champions League final since 2020 and they will be hoping to get the better of Dortmund to stand a chance of ending their Champions League trophy drought in June.
Champions League: Enrique Unveils Plans To Beat Dortmund For Final Ticket is first published on The Whistler Newspaper