Arsenal warned: “It’s harder to win your first Champions League than your second...”

On the eve of the Champions League round-of-16 first leg against Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique spoke to the media at a press conference. The Asturian coach said the external noise created by the team’s defeats “doesn’t affect him” and insisted – something Arsenal should note – that winning another Champions League would not be harder than securing the first in the club’s history.

On the pessimism surrounding the match:

“What I might hear doesn’t matter. The best thing we can do is prepare the match in the best possible conditions. We understand everything and accept everything. We are PSG and it’s normal to have noise around us.”

On motivation:

“You always believe that when matches like this arrive, excess motivation will play an important role. But there will also be a great opponent on the other side.”

On what he did with Ousmane Dembélé to help him improve:

“What we usually try to do is manage every moment with a collective mindset. This isn’t the time to talk about Dembélé. It’s not the time to look for negative statistics. We try to improve individually in order to strengthen the collective, which is the most important thing.”

On whether the match is a test to prove they are the best team in Europe:

“We have no doubts. None at all about what our level represents. I repeat – we focus on the positive things. Over a season there are better moments and more delicate ones. Managing them is the most important thing. We understand that there is always noise depending on the moment you’re going through, and you have to accept it. If there is one thing we are, it’s an experienced team. Last season we won almost every title except one, and we were still heavily criticized.”

On the noise surrounding PSG:

“I’m never worried about the noise around a team, or the type of noise it is. When there are good results there is plenty of optimism, and when results are bad, pessimism prevails. You have to keep perspective with that kind of noise. We’re used to managing it.”

On whether it is harder to win the Champions League again or to win it for the first time:

“That’s a good question. I think the first time is harder, but the second isn’t easy. Everyone knows we can win a second one and we will try to do it. But I think winning the first is more difficult.”

On whether midfield will be the key:

“No. There are different aspects that are important in matches like this. What’s clear is that we like to have the ball more than our opponent and defend effectively. In this case, I can say that Chelsea are a good team with many international players.”

On what he has told his players since Friday:

“The same things I say whether we win or lose. It depends on what we consider important. These are key moments in the season. We arrive at an important time. Preparing matches like this is exciting.”

On the possible return of João Neves:

“We’ll see tomorrow. I’m not going to give any clues to our opponents. But today we had almost the entire squad available in training. Tomorrow we’ll see which players start.”

On Chelsea:

“If we talk about English teams, we can judge all the top-level sides without exception. We know Chelsea well. We played them recently. They have changed their coach and some players. We know how difficult these matches are. We’re ready to win.”

On precision against Chelsea:

“What we can guarantee is our mentality and the way we want to play. For the game to flow clearly there are many factors that can be decisive. You usually try to find the keys that influence matches. The result tomorrow doesn’t matter, because we will prepare the match in the same way.”

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