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German lightning struck twice for Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League semi-final with Borussia Dortmund, as after being made to pay for wasted opportunities in a 1-0 first-leg defeat, an identical story on Tuesday prolonged their excruciating wait for European glory.
Failure to guide Les Parisiens to Champions League glory is normally the final nail in managers’ coffins, but Nasser Al-Khelaifi responded defiantly to claims that Enrique’s days in the PSG hotseat could be numbered, and the ex-Barcelona boss will continue at the helm for 2024-25 as the hosts’ transitional period ramps up.
However, Sunday’s match will mark the final time that Kylian Mbappe steps foot onto the Parc des Princes turf as a PSG player, and a farewell ceremony has apparently been planned for the Real Madrid-bound attacker, who was not included in the champions’ kit launch for the new season.
Emotions must be switched off for 90 minutes as PSG endeavour to snap a three-game winless sequence, though, and Enrique’s troops have played out four draws from their last five Ligue 1 contests at the Parc des Princes and have gone 10 top-flight home games without a clean sheet, one shy of their all-time record set in 1979.
A second-half surge is to thank for Les Violets’ respectable predicament, as they have averaged 1.73 points per game in 2024 compared to just 0.82 for the first half of the campaign, while each of their last three on the road against Clermont, Rennes and Lorient has also ended in victory.
August’s Ligue 1 battle between PSG and Toulouse also saw Les Violets glean a praiseworthy 1-1 draw, but Enrique’s men prevailed 2-0 in January’s Trophee des Champions (French Super Cup) showdown to stretch their unbeaten run against their visitors to 10 games in all competitions, and not since 2008 have PSG fallen short at home to the current Coupe de France holders.
