Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique insisted that his team deserved his place in the Champions League final and was determined to continue and lift the trophy after winning their draw against Arsenal on Wednesday. “During the two legs, we scored more goals than them and in football, it is the most important thing, but Arsenal played a big match and we suffered a lot,” said the Spaniard after the 2-1 victory of PSG during the second stage in Paris in Paris obtained a global triumph 3-1.
The goals on each side of the half-time of Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi put the French champions out of sight to equality before Bukayo Saka draws one for Arsenal, while the Vitinha of PSG was saved a penalty.
However, the hosts needed the goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to make several vital stops and Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta said his team had been better during the two legs.
“This is the match in which we suffered the most (in the Champions League), but we are worth arriving in the final,” added Luis Enrique.
PSG will now face Inter Milan in the final in Munich on May 31 after an extraordinary race in the competition which also saw them knocking out two other Premier League teams in Liverpool and Aston Villa.
This occurs after they were real in danger of elimination due to a bad series of results in the league phase – they lost three of their first five games, including a 2-0 defeat against Arsenal.
This meant that they arrived at 15th out of 36 teams and finished eight points behind the best team, Liverpool.
“I think that throughout the competition, it is clear that the results are what matters, we know that, but in the league phase, there is no doubt that we deserve nine more points,” said Luis Enrique.
“The fact that we had such a difficult set of matches in the league phase helped the team improve and develop.
“Statistics have shown that we were one of the best teams in Europe, and when we started to be more clinical, in a short competition, I think we have shown that we deserve to be in the final.”
It will be the second final of the PSG Champions League, five years after losing 1-0 against Bayern Munich in Lisbon.
Last year, during the first season of Luis Enrique with the club, they were beaten in the semi-finals by Borussia Dortmund.
“There is no logic in football, but the first day I was here, I said that the goal was to work to be able to make history, and it is our goal, to be the first to win this trophy,” for PSG, added the former coach of Barcelona, who will be 55 years old.
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