Paris Saint-Germain have achieved ‘our ultimate goal', says Luis Enrique after Champions League triumph
Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique celebrates after winning the Champions League at the Allianz Arena in Munich on May 31. They beat Inter Milan 5-0 in the final. PHOTO: REUTERS
MUNICH – Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique said he and the club had achieved their 'ultimate goal' by winning the Champions League after the 5-0 thumping of Inter Milan in Munich.
Since their Qatari takeover in 2011, PSG have won 11 of the past 13 French titles but the grand prize for which the club had spent big had always eluded them.
On May 31, PSG sliced Inter to pieces at the Allianz Arena to emphatically put that right.
Teenager Desire Doue produced a scintillating performance, scoring twice and setting up Achraf Hakimi's opener, with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and substitute Senny Mayulu also finding the net.
Doue's masterclass, which came only three days before his 20th birthday, saw him become just the third teenager to score in the final of the modern Champions League, after Patrick Kluivert and Carlos Alberto.
Doue, whose name appropriately translates as 'talented', finishes the campaign with 15 goals and 16 assists in 54 appearances.
'It is my first season here, and it was a dream when I came here to win (the Champions League). Great players have played here and not won it but we have shown incredible collective strength and it is just magnificent,' he said.
PSG's young team achieved what the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe could not do in their colours as they became only the second French side to win the trophy, after Olympique Marseille in 1993.
Said PSG captain Marquinhos, who has been at the club since 2013: 'I think of all the players who have come through and not succeeded. My idol Thiago (Silva), Lucas (Moura), Zlatan (Ibrahimovic), (Edinson) Cavani, (Angel) di Maria.
'So many players who have come through here who deserved this and didn't succeed. Now we're here and we're bringing it home.'
Enrique, who won the Champions League at the helm of Barcelona in Berlin in 2015, said he had his sights set on the title ever since he took over in the French capital in 2023.
He is now the second coach, after his former Barcelona teammate Pep Guardiola, to win the continental treble of League, Cup and Champions League in one season twice.
'On my first day at the PSG campus, my French was even worse than it is today. But I said the ultimate goal for me as a coach was to fill the trophy cabinet,' said Enrique.
'The only trophy missing was Champions League. And we've ticked that box. We were ambitious, and we did it. It's in the bag and it's coming home with us tomorrow.'
The coach singled out forward Ousmane Dembele for special praise, calling him 'incredible' and saying 'he deserves to win the Ballon d'Or.'
Said Dembele: 'It's exceptional. Playing in a Champions League final and winning in style. Winning 5-0 against a team like Inter Milan is difficult. Our confidence grew from match to match...
'There's a lot of competition in this team, which means you have to give 100 per cent, otherwise you're replaced.'
Enrique also paid tribute to his daughter Xana, who passed away from cancer in 2019 aged nine.
After the full-time whistle, the French fans unfurled a banner depicting father and daughter planting a PSG flag into the ground, just as the two had done with a Barcelona flag in Berlin a decade earlier.
'It was emotional. It's beautiful that the supporters thought about me and my family. But I don't need to win the Champions League or even a game to think about my daughter,' the Spaniard said.
'She's always with me. She's supporting me, and our family, and I feel her presence.'
Enrique paid tribute to his team's supporters who he described as like a 12th man with wild celebrations erupting across the French capital, although skirmishes with police later threatened to spoil the party.
On the Champs-Elysees, bus shelters were smashed up and projectiles hurled at riot police, who fired tear gas and water canons to push back surging crowds as thousands of supporters descended on the boutique-lined boulevard.
There were also clashes with police on the Paris ring road and at least two cars were torched near PSG's Parc des Princes stadium.
Some 5,400 police were deployed across Paris in anticipation of raucous celebrations.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau urged a zero-tolerance approach to maintaining order amid the celebrations.
'True PSG supporters are enjoying their team's magnificent match. Meanwhile, barbarians have taken to the streets of Paris to commit crimes and provoke the police,' the minister tweeted.
Police had made more than 130 arrests by shortly after midnight. AFP, REUTERS
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