Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique praised his side’s defensive effort as they reached the Champions League final with a 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich in the semi-finals second leg.
The draw, which saw Ousmane Dembele’s early goal cancelled out by Harry Kane’s effort in stoppage time on the night, sealed a 6-5 aggregate victory over the Bundesliga champions saw them reach back-to-back finals as they prepare to defend their trophy against Arsenal.
After a brilliant, if chaotic, 5-4 win in Paris last week, the holders excelled defensively to keep the likes of Kane, Michael Olise and Luis Diaz quiet, and Enrique felt the back four deserved most of the praise ahead of another date with destiny in Budapest on May 30.
The PSG boss said: “Good memories. We could leave the match with a lot of intensity. The defence were better than the attack.
“The character we showed against a team like Bayern is so positive. We’re so happy to reach a second Champions League final in a row.
“It was very intense. Very difficult. They play football at the highest level. Both teams are similar, we love to press higher. We are very happy.
“In two days I’m going to celebrate my birthday. I’m very happy. We’re in the next phase of the competition, the final of the Champions League. We want to give our supporters that kind of gift.”
Winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who assisted Dembele’s opener after three minutes, added: “Very happy we’re in the final.
“We know it will be difficult aganst Arsenal. Bayern is one of the best teams right now. It was very difficult.
The hardest one in the season. We showed we can play against these teams. I will give everything for this badge.”
Neuer: We lacked the killer instinct
Manuel Neuer, who had to be on hand to make a number of saves to keep his team in the game across the 90 minutes, said Bayern were lacking the ruthless touch needed to turn the tie around.
The goalkeeper said to DAZN: “I think we didn’t have the killer instinct in attack today, but ultimately we did have the opportunities to win the game.
“We didn’t have many clear-cut chances, but when you do get those moments… look at Paris – they were simply killers, scoring five goals the way they did in the first leg.
“That’s exactly what we needed today. And I think you could see that we were actually close to reaching the final, but we weren’t able to finish the job.
“Our goal unfortunately came a bit too late. We didn’t have time to create another chance or maybe even get a set-piece situation. At that point it was too late.
“I think that key moment in the game was simply missing. The stadium was there, we were there as well, but I think in Paris’ penalty area we just weren’t clinical enough.”
