Barcelona The host of Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League has a great opportunity to be the best, more dramatic and exciting game anywhere in the world this week.
The last time they met, 17 months ago, the Catalans won brilliantly in the French capital and the Parisians responded with a punishing victory in Barcelona. That Battle of Tit -for Ot treated 10 goals, while the former Barça coach Luis Enrique inspired his new team to the semifinals of the Champions League in his debut season.
Since eight of the 12 best players in the ranking Ballon d'Or of last week were scheduled to decorate Wednesday's game, there has been an understandable approach in the lists of injuries: Raphinha, Gavi, Ousmane Dembélé, Marquinhos, Désé Doué and Khvicha Kvarathskhelia everything; In addition, the doubts of varying degrees surround João Neves, Fabián Ruiz and Vitinha.
But this is a meeting that can leave Jirones participants, regardless of the physical or mental state in which they address it.
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Of the three I have in mind, only two are scheduled to face this time: Luis Enrique and Ronald Araújo. The other is Xavi Hernández, who, defeated and sent on the night of April last year, only trained the club that passionately loves seven more games before saying goodbye.
With that vision of the glory of the Champions League (a possible semifinal against Borussia Dortmund and what, hypothetically, would have been the third final of Barça, this time one Classic Against Real Madrid was advanced) while driving 4-2 together with 72% of the tie played, Xavi's hopes of maintaining his job disappeared. Such are the whims of football management.
However, it is the two survivors who should interest him.
Since that season, since he knocked out the club that loves, in which he is a partner (Club member), and the club where he won 16 trophies as a player and coach in 14 years, Luis Enrique is À laas the French would say. He has won nine of the 11 trophies available for the PSG for two incredible years, including his second triple, and, as recently as last week, he won the d'Or-Johan Cruyff Trophy 2025 ball as coach of the year for a landslide. But what was later completely unnoticed is how much it cost him and his family to go through that 2024 test to eliminate Barcelona from the Champions League.
I am lucky to tell him as a friend and was generous with his time, and our access, when, at that same moment, we were filming our “You have no p — idea“(” You have no f — Ing idea “) Documentary About Him. A COUPLE OF DAYS AFTER ARAÚJO was feel off in the second leg and psg ran riot, turning at 4-2 deficit into 6-4 Aggregate win, We Fulfilled to Pre-Agreed Shot With Luis Enrique in His Office at PSG ' Soulless Poissy Campus.
But he is vast, he can feel like a cavernous and empty game. That gray afternoon, there were almost no people, the mood was bleak and simply told us the truth as he felt it then; The times have changed, but this was a marked image of the affections of a divided man and the cost of doing his job brilliantly.
That day, he told us: “I never want to face Barça again in the next 10 years. Not once! For my good and for the family!”
He added: “It was 'heavy' for my family, for my friends, for me. Wow! Too much!”
The truth that arose is that, although it comes from the beautiful city of Gijón in the northern region of Asturias, Barcelona and its surroundings are its true home now and they will always be. In addition, the affection that he and his whole family hold for him Blaugrana Club is deeply rooted.
Luis Enrique's closest family, his Catalan wife and two children, admitted that they were deeply conflict with the assistance to the second section since their premonitions become a situation of not winning. Be knocked out and is an anguish for her husband and father, progress and surely there will be a sensation of hangover.
Enter the stage to the right, the other loser of that night: Araújo.
Luis Enrique and his PSG analysts identified the Uruguay International as good … but not good enough if the correct pressure points were pushed. In a scene that allowed us to use in the documentary (whose title the PSG fans used for the banner welcoming Luis Enrique to Parc de Princes after his ballon d'Or-Johan Cruyff Trophy Win), dictates to his players precisely how he wants them to isolate and then explode the weaknesses of Araujo.
During the team meeting the night before the match in Montjuïc, the PSG coach told his players: “This gentleman is Araújo. A high -level footballer. Without a doubt. But the Barça player with most of the problems.
“Every time the ball goes to him, in any situation, while the ball is still in motion, we are already closing its passage line and then pressing it. We let Araújo go out with the ball. Every time it does that, we isolate it and press it.”
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Video evidence showed that Araújo was anxious to climb the ball, a leader and defender of all my heart, but poor in its use of possession when it was pressed. Prone to get rid of, instead of keeping calm. Then, PSG closed other passes for Marc-André Ter Stegen and the rest of the defenders of the house, directed the ball at the foot of the Uruguayan and then the trap emerged. It was brutal.
In less than half an hour, the prize arrived. Araújo, in the ball, PSG without realizing it had directed this to happen, was pressed and endowed with a rebel pass to the center of the PSG field, Bradley Barcola left in a sprint towards the mouth of Barça's goals and, then, a lack of last man of the harassed and undoubtedly embarrassed Uruguayan. Free Kick, Card Red and the balance of the entire inclined tie. Precisely as Luis Enrique had predicted.
Postmatch, Xavi regretted that competing 10 compared to 11 at that level, against a rival like the PSG, it was practically impossible. Luis Enrique deserves a NB (good note) here.
He also demonstrated to his obedient team that PSG could (could) easily score from the edge of the box due to how Barcelona defended (this also happened) and inspired the type of (rare) by pressing Kylian Mbappé that coaches, including Xabi Alonso at this time, have tried in vain to extract the brilliant Striker. The PSG broke home, and when they finally did the safe things, 4-1 with a remaining minute, Luis Enrique let out a little of the bottled emotion he was feeling.
The next day, in reality, the days, were full of unpleasant, poisonous vitriolo and the Catalan media and social networks, including comments such as: “That was a Mourinho style behavior”, “neither Xavi nor Pep Guardiola would never celebrate training a victory against Barcelona like that” and “dishonest, a disrespect.”
The disappointment often channels itself as Ira and Vitriolo, but this was exaggerated and hurt. Araújo's trust and reputation were very affected and, ironically, it is only now that their importance for the team and self -confidence have been completely restored.
On that wet, quiet and reflective afternoon in Poissy, Luis Enrique told us: “Those were two brutal weeks. For the family too … well, all, naturally. Very hard, emotionally. We burn us. I am in pieces.
“Honestly, for me it would have been much easier to play against Madrid! Much! All that, although we won. I hate to think if I had finished badly. I prefer not to have played them.”
Now here goes again. New rival on the Barça bench, the defending champion, the injury involvement team, but against the club that he (deeply in his heart) feels a strong emotion. This time it is not a knockout, granted, but load and load on the line. Emotions, pride and how it is received by fans and Catalan media, especially.
