Luis Enrique insisted that his Paris Saint-Germain crew had been motivated to construct on their 2024-25 success as they eye Membership World Cup glory.
PSG booked their place within the final 16 of the competitors with a 2-0 win over the Seattle Sounders on Monday, because of objectives from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Achraf Hakimi.
The Champions League winners completed prime of Group B, and had been joined within the subsequent spherical by Botafogo, regardless of their 1-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid within the different group recreation.
Luis Enrique’s crew had been worthy winners in opposition to Seattle, registering an anticipated objectives (xG) complete of two.12 from their 15 pictures to the Sounders’ 0.6 from their seven makes an attempt.
PSG responded to their shock defeat to Botafogo final outing, and did so by dominating possession, one thing they’ve executed all through the primary part of the competitors.
Certainly, the Parisiens have held 73% possession over their three group stage matches to date on the Membership World Cup, finishing 1,500 extra passes than their opponents.
They’ll face the runners-up of Group A of their subsequent match, with the potential for a reunion with Lionel Messi, whose Inter Miami crew at present occupy that place.
And regardless of making their first look on the Membership World Cup, Luis Enrique believes his facet have what it takes to go all the way in which in the USA.
“It’s a contest the place you must be able to go to Atlanta, Philadelphia, and even elsewhere,” Luis Enrique stated.
“We need to go so far as doable, and I feel the gamers are prepared. The actual competitors begins now, and will probably be very troublesome.
“After every match, we now have to see if we qualify or not. We’re motivated!”
Regardless of their victory, Luis Enrique took the time to precise his frustration on the enjoying floor at Lumen Area.
“What issues is the state of the pitch. And I say that as we speak, although we gained. We’re a great distance from European stadiums,” Luis Enrique added.
“They’re good, however the ball bounces like a rabbit. At this time, because it was a synthetic pitch earlier than, and now a pure pitch, you must water it by hand and it dries out in 10 minutes.
“It’s an apparent downside, it’s not an excuse. We will’t play on the degree we need to. And FIFA has to take that under consideration. Not solely in stadiums, but in addition throughout coaching camps.
“I can’t think about an NBA court docket with holes. We play in stadiums the place the ball appears to be like extra like a rabbit than a ball. If we now have to criticise, it deserves to be modified.”
For Atletico and Diego Simeone, in the meantime, their match got here to an finish regardless of beating Brazilian facet Botafogo on the Rose Bowl on Monday.
The LaLiga giants knew they wanted to beat their opponents by three objectives to advance, however had been solely capable of finding one, which got here from Antoine Griezmann within the 87th minute.
The end result noticed Botafogo turn into the primary crew to concede only one aim of their first two conferences with European opponents within the Membership World Cup, together with the earlier format.
For Atletico, they did not advance from the group stage of a significant match for a 3rd time below Simeone, after earlier exits from the Champions League in 2017-18 and 2022-23.
3 – Atletico Madrid have did not advance from the group stage for the third time below Diego Pablo Simeone, having failed to take action within the Champions League within the 2017/18 and 2022/23 seasons each. Setback#AtleticodeMadrid #ClubWorldCup2025 pic.twitter.com/dxo0CkUphM
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) June 23, 2025
And talking after the sport, Simeone conceded that their 4-0 thrashing by PSG of their opening recreation of the competitors proved pricey.
“The match in opposition to PSG ended up dooming us, the place each choice all the time went in opposition to us. We gained two out of three matches, and sadly, we’re out,” Simeone stated.
“We’re calm, and we’re very clear on what we have to enhance, and all of this helps us.”
Griezmann, in the meantime, didn’t mince his phrases, saying: “We have now to take a look at ourselves and see that generally we’re not on the degree we have to be, and we now have to repair that.”