Sitting in the stands alongside Luis Campos, his football director, and Vincent Labrune, the president of the LFP, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi went through all the emotions this Tuesday evening at the Montjuïc stadium. But after the quarter return of the Champions League, it was a Parisian president over the moon and all smiles who came to express his happiness in front of the microphones.
This victory must be special for you?
NASSER AL-KHELAÏFI. It’s magnificent, historic for us, for France, especially here in Barcelona, in this stadium, after losing the first leg. Everyone doubted, everyone criticized us but I was very confident.
The players, the staff, the coach showed that we were a team. A great team. It’s a feeling of pride. It’s one of the best moments since I arrived in Paris. We want to celebrate tonight, but it’s not over. We want to think now about winning the championship. We also have Dortmund of course, but the championship is very important. We also want to calm things down, think about what we did well and what we didn’t do well and not say too many things.
What did you think of Kylian Mbappé’s performance?
It’s a team that won tonight, it’s not just one player. They won with eleven. They all showed that they wanted to win. We showed personality, character, starting with our coach Luis Enrique who you know well here in Barcelona.
The players played with your heart a little, right?
(Laughs) It’s really a wonderful feeling, it’s even better! Fantastic ! It’s very special for me.
The dream is getting closer to winning this Champions League…
We’re building a team, it’s always the same. We go game by game, step by step. We are still far from it. There is still L1, the cup and this semi-final. You have to calm down and take it step by step.
