Luis Enrique, PSG coach, believes he made changes in the interest of the team on Wednesday during Paris’ defeat at Dortmund (1-0) in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League.
PSG concluded the match against Dortmund (1-0) with almost the same team as the one which started the match. Quite rare, Luis Enrique actually made only two changes during his team’s defeat in Germany. The first was even imposed by the injury of Lucas Hernandez, replaced by Lucas Beraldo (42nd) in the first half. The Spanish technician then decided to replace Bradley Barcola with Randal Kolo Muani (65th). And that’s all. A low turnover which he justified at a press conference.
“What we think is best for our team”
“We coaches always make decisions based on what we think is best for our team,” he defended. “I think before talking about the changes it has to be said that it was a balanced match with two teams who play good football when they have the ball. It is difficult to take the ball away from them. Both teams played created many scoring opportunities If I had been told before the match that we would have so many scoring opportunities, I would have signed. But this time, the opponent was able to score a goal while we did not. We weren’t able to do it. It’s a result that reflects what happened on the ground.”
The choice to bring in Kolo Muani, currently in difficulty (only four goals scored in 2024), rather than Gonçalo Ramos, in great form, contributed to tense up some supporters. The Portuguese, author of 11 goals in 2024, even remained on the bench until the final whistle. Which really pleased Daniel Riolo, journalist and columnist for After.
“So Ramos was on the bench, with the idea that he would have half an hour in this match. Well, the genius decided that he would not have a minute in this match,” Daniel Riolo then lamented. “I guess everyone understood, since it’s only me who doesn’t understand anything and everyone understands everything when the genius makes a decision.”
