Luis Enrique has announced an identical 22-man squad for Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League round-of-16 second leg at Liverpool on Tuesday. The Reds hold a 1-0 aggregate lead after Harvey Elliott netted a late winner at the Parc des Princes last week.
However, Liverpool owed its victory to Alisson Becker, as the goalkeeper made a record nine saves to keep PSG at bay despite a dominant performance from the Ligue 1 heavyweights.
Enrique made eight changes to his team for PSG’s 4-1 triumph over Rennes on Saturday, with Bradley Barcola, Willian Pacho and Joao Neves being the only players to keep their starting spots from the defeat to the Reds.
Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Achraf Hakimi, Vitinha and Nuno Mendes were only used as substitutes, with none of the five playing more than 25 minutes. Fabian Ruiz and Gianluigi Donnarumma remained unused on the bench, while captain Marquinhos was not included in the squad at all.
However, all eight have been named in the PSG travelling squad for the journey to Anfield, definitively confirming that Enrique’s selection decisions against Rennes were not due to any injury or fitness concerns, but rather with an eye on the second leg clash with Liverpool.
And the squad confirmed by PSG is exactly the same as the 22-man roster it relied on for their first leg last week.
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The PSG manager had already confirmed that his squad came through the Rennes victory without any new injuries, but he also owned up to having been less than truthful before the Ligue 1 game when he claimed he hadn’t been considering Slot’s team. “I lied to you. Of course, I think about Liverpool, like everyone else,” he confessed.
“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.”
“I think all the players are fine. There are no injuries. The result is excellent against a team that gave us a hard time but we achieved our objective. The first leg leaves us no options: we have to win, that’s the objective. Nothing will change compared to the other matches, we play to win, but that’s the objective.”
