Mikel Arteta had plenty of praise for Luis Enrique ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg between their two teams, but he insisted he’s coming to Paris to win.
There’s clearly a lot of respect between Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and PSG boss Luis Enrique, and that hasn’t changed following the two matches between their teams so far this season.
Arteta came out on top in the first encounter, with Arsenal winning their League Phase match 2-0 in October. But Enrique won the far more important Champions League semi-final first leg 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium last week.
There’s still one more match to come on Wednesday night, and Arsenal will have to win it if they want to be in this season’s Champions League final.
Against that backdrop, Arteta still had lots of nice things to say about his opposition counterpart, before adding that he’s looking forward to winning against the PSG manager.
“Yes (I played with Enrique at Barcelona), I was very young,” Arteta began. “I wasn’t even a part of the squad, but yeah [he’s] a magnificent coach. Someone really special, someone inspiring.
“What he’s done again is built a team, very clear what he wants to do. And I’m looking forward to beating him!”
Enrique has already been involved in the Champions League final before, helping Barcelona to win the competition in 2014/15. He’ll be drawing on that experience to get his new team over the line, and it’s up to Arteta to figure out a way to stop him.