PSG Crisis: Is Luis Enrique to Blame?

Thibault Morlain
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Journalist

After trying different sports, Thibault turned to a career as an amateur footballer. When making a choice between becoming a professional footballer and a journalist, the qualities tipped the scales to one side. Here he is now in the editorial team of 10 Sport, after a diploma obtained at the International Institute of Communication in Paris.

Before winning the Champions League last season, PSG experienced terrible disappointments on the European scene in recent years. Obviously, the greatest of all will remain the comeback against FC Barcelona in 2017. Present on the Blaugrana side for this meeting, Samuel Umtiti remembered how Luis Enrique, now in Paris, had led his troops to victory, in the process causing the crisis within the capital club.

In 2017, after winning 4-0 in the first leg against FC BarcelonaPSG almost had both feet in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. But then the unthinkable happened in the return match at Camp Nou. A historic comeback (6-1) orchestrated by Luis Enrique on the Blaugrana bench and led in particular by Neymar on the ground. This meeting was a real earthquake and Samuel Umtitia Barça player at the time, obviously still remembers it.

“We prepared the match well, from A to Z, thanks to the coach who was exceptional”

Guest of The Elevate House, Samuel Umtiti therefore returned to this historic comeback in the face of PSG. The elder of FC Barcelona then said: “ One of the best moments of my career. We were coming off a 4-0 first leg in Paris, I told myself it was going to be difficult. In the end, we prepared the match well, from start to finish, thanks to the coach who was exceptional. He gave us messages that we needed to hear. We worked just after the Paris match in a certain way to be able to put them in difficulty and it worked. It’s a match that will forever remain in the history of football, of the Catalans and even of the Parisians. It was a crisis after that ».

“Paris did not know how to manage this match and the pressure”

« It was an exceptional moment for me. I thought it was possible? I had hope. You always have to have it, but even more so when you’re in a locker room like this, where people are calm. You thought we won 4-0 in the first leg. That’s what really shocked me. We knew what we had to do to qualify. We put this Paris team in difficulty who did not know how to manage this match and the pressure », continued Samuel Umtiti.