Luis Enrique has warned Liverpool that last week’s defeat in the first leg of the Champions League last-16 tie makes Paris Saint-Germain ‘even more dangerous’ as he rested several big names at the weekend in anticipation of the heavyweight clash at Anfield on Tuesday.
Harvey Elliott’s late goal secured a 1-0 victory for the Reds in Paris last week, a result that left PSG both dismayed and hungry for revenge. Much like Liverpool’s game against Southampton, PSG’s Ligue 1 meeting with Rennes felt like an unwanted distraction on Saturday.
Speaking ahead of the match, the PSG boss had said his sole focus was on domestic matters and not the second leg against Liverpool, but he made eight changes to his starting XI and admitted post-match that the Champions League fixture was always going to take precedence.
“I lied to you. Of course I think about Liverpool, like everyone else,” Enrique said after his understrength side came away with a 4-1 win. “I’ve been thinking about the games against Liverpool for a while, since the draw already.
“But I also think that I have to highlight my team, my players, the mentality of all the players in the team, all of them. Those who play, those who play less, those who don’t participate. I think that to be able to compete, to fight for all the titles and to represent a club like ours, they have the right mentality. And it’s a pleasure for me to coach them.”
Again, like Liverpool’s win over Southampton, the 4-1 victory against Rennes didn’t tell the full story. The French champions held a one-goal advantage heading into injury-time and Enrique had to turn to his talented bench to see out the game, with Ousmane Dembele netting twice after the 90th minute to secure victory.
He was one of eight who started against Liverpool and dropped out of the Rennes team. Achraf Hakimi, Nuno Mendes, Vitinha and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia also came off the bench, while Gianluigi Donnarumma, Marquinhos and Fabian Ruiz didn’t feature at all.
(Image: 2025 UEFA)
The youthful Willian Pacho, Joao Neves and Bradley Barcola were the only players to start both games, with the latter pair replaced late on in preparation for the trip to Merseyside.
“What is magical and wonderful about football is that it is unpredictable. If the team that played the best or the one with the biggest budget always won, it would be very boring,” Enrique said after the game, when asked about his side’s motivation after losing the first leg despite dominating.
“Football has surprises in store, and it is true that we are very sad and devastated in the hours following the match. But once we have analyzed the match, seen the players in training, and seen the result of today’s match against this complicated Rennes team that put us in difficulty at the start of the second half, I think the team reacted very seriously and that obviously gives us hope. I repeat: we have nothing to lose, everything is already lost, which makes us even more dangerous than we usually are.”
