Former Barcelona manager and the man who led them to win the UCL trophy in 2015, Luis Enrique, now with PSG, will be looking forward to stopping a Barca side led by his former player, Xavi, in the first leg of this season’s UEFA Champions League quarterfinal.
First, welcoming his former team to the Parc des Princes, Luis Enrique will be looking to use a Real Madrid-bound Kylian Mbappe to gain a first-leg advantage before the second leg at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, their temporary home amidst a Camp Nou revamp.
Luis Enrique Would Love to Prove a Point with Barca
Luis has many reasons for wanting to beat and eliminate Barca from the UEFA Champions League, the most obvious of which is that he is the manager of their opponents, PSG, however, aside from the most obvious, the Spanish manager has others.
The first of those reasons is that the manager, underneath all his affection for Barca, will be looking for his form of payback for the fact that he was given the boot from the Barca job only two years after lifting ten (10) trophies for them including the UCL and La Liga.
Away from that, the UEFA Champions League has been a trophy that has eluded the PSG team for years and regardless of the money, investments, and managers, they have brought to try to change that, they have not been able to.
With Kylian Mbappe set to leave the French club at the end of this season, it will feel for Luis Enrique as his last opportunity to try to take advantage of the presence of the star winger to try to do the thing many top managers like Ancelotti, Tuchel, Emery, and Pochettino have failed to do.
Barca Seems a Reinvented Side since Xavi’s Threat to Leave
The Barcelona side that started the La Liga season and went 5 points behind Girona at 3rd place on the La Liga table would have probably made this UCL quarter final fixture a foregone conclusion but not this Barca side, and it’s because of their manager Xavi.
Ever since Xavi publicly announced his intentions to leave the job at the end of the season, the Spanish side looks like a whole new different team, compared to the one from before.
Since dropping his resignation bombshell after a 5-3 loss to Villarreal in January, Xavi has presided over an 11-game unbeaten streak across all competitions, a run that includes an emphatic 3-1 home beating of Napoli in the 2nd leg of their last-16 tie following a 1-1 draw on Italian soil.
This rejuvenated Barca side and their current form mean the game on Wednesday would be anything but easy for PSG, and if that is not enough the history between the two sides in the competition, which has seen each side win the fixture four times each, sets this up beautifully.
Match Stats
PSG, sitting 10 points clear at the top of the French Ligue 1 with six games left to play, are currently on a 27-game unbeaten run in all competitions while Barca, 8 points behind Spanish League leaders, Real Madrid, are on an 11-game unbeaten run.
PSG are unbeaten in 19 home games in all competitions including their R16 game against Spanish side Real Sociedad, while Barca are unbeaten in their 5 most recent away games in all competitions including their round 16 game versus Napoli.
PSG are reaching an average of 2.00 goals in home Champions League games while the average number of goals scored by Barcelona is 2.00 for their matches in the Champions League.
You can check out the 1st leg of the PSG vs Barca UEFA Champions League quarterfinal game here on MSport.
