Apart from guiding Paris Saint-Germain to the Champions League final on Tuesday night, Luis Enrique delivered a stinging rebuttal to every critic who’s ever mocked Ligue 1 as a “farmers’ league.”
Fresh from a 3-1 aggregate win over Arsenal in the semifinal, PSG’s fourth straight knockout triumph over Premier League opposition, the Spaniard tactician leaned into the jibe that’s long been used to diminish French football.
“The league of farmers, no? We are the league of farmers,” Enrique said with a smirk to TNT Sports. “But it’s nice. We are enjoying the result and the compliments of everybody speaking of our team, our mentality, how we play.”
PSG, often dismissed for playing in a supposedly weak domestic league, have now knocked out Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal in a single Champions League campaign. For Enrique, the narrative has flipped.
With a 1-0 advantage from the first leg at the Emirates, PSG sealed their place in Munich with goals from Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi. Bukayo Saka’s late strike offered Arsenal a sliver of consolation, but it was never enough.
PSG, already crowned Ligue 1 champions last month, now stand one win away from a historic treble, with the Coupe de France final against Reims on May 24, followed by a Champions League showdown against Inter Milan a week later.
Enrique, who lifted the UCL with Barcelona in 2015, dismissed any suggestion that Arsenal were the better team over two legs. “Mikel Arteta is a great friend, but I don’t agree at all (that Arsenal deserved to win). We scored more goals, and that is what matters.”
Story continues below this ad
He reserved special praise for goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and the backline, pointing to their consistency as a key factor in PSG’s turnaround after a shaky start to the campaign. “How are you going to win the Champions League without a great goalkeeper? Or a great defence?” Enrique asked. “They were phenomenal.”
The manager pinpointed January’s dramatic 4-2 comeback win over Manchester City as the moment PSG’s campaign ignited. “We were down 0-2 and then came back. That was the turning point.”
Often accused of folding under pressure, Enrique’s PSG now look battle-hardened.
“It means a lot,” Enrique said. “Our goal when we arrived in Paris was to make history and we’re on the right path.”
