PSG boss Luis Enrique dismisses Liverpool theory and makes Champions League vow
Luis Enrique masterminded Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League victory over Liverpool, beating the Arne Slot's men on the so-called 'lottery' of penalties to book their place in the quarter-finals
by Chris McKenna · The MirrorLuis Enrique revealed he was off to do some dancing after dumping Liverpool out of the Champions League.
The PSG boss revelled in the win in a penalty shootout at Anfield as his side booked a place in the quarter-finals against Aston Villa or Club Brugge next month. But the former Barcelona head coach - who won the Champions League in 2015 with the Spanish giants - was first off to celebrate this success.
He said: “It's always special to play at Anfield. We are a team that's very young but we have a lot of personality. Now it's a big party, I'm looking forward to dancing a little bit!”
Gianluigi Donnarumma saved from Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones in the shootout. Vitinha, Goncalo Ramos, Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue scored for PSG to send them through. PSG are going in search for their first ever European Cup.
Dembele had earlier scored in normal time to cancel out Harvey Elliott’s late goal from the first leg in Paris. Enrique added: “Clearly I’m happy and really pleased with our performance. It is a significant moment for us.
“Both teams deserved to go through, but perhaps we deserved it slightly more maybe because of the first leg. We have huge strength of character and personality. Tonight there were times Liverpool were perhaps better than us but we never gave up and created danger.
“We certainly put in a good performance. We absolutely had to win tonight and that’s what we did. We got knocked out in the semi-finals last season and hit the frame of the goal six times. But this time we got through.
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“People talk about penalties being a lottery but often they are not. Your mindset comes into it. We will take this momentum into our forthcoming games.”
Donnarumma’s penalty heroics certainly made up for his mistake in letting Elliott’s goal in last week. Enrique said: “The first game belonged to Alisson Becker and the second game belonged to Donnarumma.
“I think the penalties reflect the team we are. We had a 19-year-old in Doue taking the last penalty and Donnarumma was magnificent for the penalties. Liverpool put a lot of balls into the box and high, he dealt with them really well and I’m very pleased with him.”
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