Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique said Xavi Hernández’s Barcelona side played “long ball football like Eibar” in a new documentary which follows his first season in charge of the French champions.
PSG played Barça in the Champions League quarterfinals last season, losing the first leg 3-2 in Paris before coming back to win 4-1 in the second leg at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona.
“Barça aren’t guaranteed to [dominate games], they haven’t in two seasons with Xavi,” Luis Enrique said in the Spanish documentary titled [“You have no f—ing idea”] before the tie.
“They aren’t a dominant team and they are not a good team defensively, either,” he said. “They defend with bodies but they don’t have quality in defence.”
Luis Enrique doubled down on his opinion of Xavi’s Barça after losing the first game at the Parc des Princes.
“It’s a lie to say Barça were better, that’s completely false,” he said in his analysis of the LaLiga side, who he played for and later coached between 2014 and 2017. “They played long balls. [Goalkeeper Marc-André] ter Stegen broke the record for long passes — I think it was 24. They play like Eibar. It was all long balls. Call it the third man if you’re a fan of Xaxi.”
The buildup to the tie had focused on the two former teammates, with Luis Enrique saying in the news conference before the first game that he embodies Barcelona’s style of football better than Xavi.
Ahead of the return leg, the documentary centres on how Luis Enrique encouraged Kylian Mbappé to buy in to working harder, holding a one-on-one meeting with the French forward to explain why he needed him to press and harry more.
“You have to be a leader,” he told Mbappé. “You have to help us. Defend like a son of a b—-, lead by example, press … and we will be a f—ing machine.”
PSG went on to win the second leg, but were eliminated in the semifinal by Borussia Dortmund.
Speaking ahead of the release of the documentary this week, Luis Enrique said the tie against Barça was “horrible” and that he hopes he never has to come up against his former side again in his managerial career.
Luis Enrique also revealed that Barça, who he led to the Treble as coach in 2014-15 and won nine trophies with during his three years in charge, sounded him out about a possible return during the 2022-23 season.
“They called [my agent Ivan de la Peña],” he explained. “I said to him: ‘Ask them what happens if Xavi wins LaLiga and the Copa, are they going to sack him?’ I already knew the answer.”
The documentary starts with Luis Enrique’s presentation as PSG coach, taking in his first league title with the French club and ending with the launch of the Xana Foundation, named after his late daughter.
Mbappé — referred to as “Kiki” throughout by Luis Enrique — also featured prominently in the documentary, as PSG prepared for life without the forward, who joined Real Madrid upon the expiry of his contract last summer.
“He’s a great player, but he’s an even better person,” Luis Enrique said of Mbappé. “He works hard, he’s endearing, he’s kind. Kylian is the cornerstone of the project, we defend so that he doesn’t get worn out and attack so that he has freedom.
“Without Kylian, the team is the cornerstone of the project … If you won trophies for having the best player in the world, PSG would have won eight Champions Leagues. They have not won any.”