Luis Enrique is hopeful that Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League clash with Manchester City on Wednesday will not be their most important game of the season. (More Football News)
Theꦬ match at the Parc des Princes will see Luis Enrique reunite with Pep Guardiola, with the pair having worked at Barcelona together both as players and managers.
But the encounter ♌comes with significance, with PSG and City having struggled in this year's competition and at risk of failing to reach the kn🦹ockout stages.
The Parisiens find themselves 25th in the 36-team standings having managed just seven points from their six games, wh💙ile the Citizens are a point ahead in 22nd.
This will be the fifth meeting between PSG's Luis Enrique and City’s Guardiola, with both winning two gam𒊎es each in their Champions League encounters.
However, along with Jurgen Klopp (two), Luis Enrique is one of only two managers to have🎉 beaten Guardiola by three or more goals on multiple occasions (3-0 in May 2015 and 4-0 in October 2016, both in charge of Barcelona).
"Tomorrow is a special match, not just ꦛbecause of the importance be⛄tween the two teams but because I will be up against a friend who I have played with for many years, and we crossed paths as coaches," Luis Enrique told reporters ahead of Wednesday's game.
"I hope the most important match is not the one against Manchester City. I hope it will be in the next phase of the �ꦉ�competition at a very high level with the trophy at stake."
Luis Enrique, however, knows that the penultimate game o🏅f PSG's league phase could be crucial in deciding the futures of both clubs in the competition.&nb💫sp;
The Parisiens last failed to get beyond the first phase oﷺf the Champions League in 2004-05, while for City, that last happened back in 2012-13.&n💝bsp;
"I hope to have other more important games, but this is a special game because in the new format♍ of the Champions League I don't think anyone could predict that City would have this number of points ahead of match day seven," he said.
"That is football and that is the new foꦦrmat. Right now we don't know how many points we will need to qualify. Nobody can say. Maybe after this match we will know that."
PSG have suffered def🌊eats away to Arsenal and Bayern Munich this season, but Luis Enrique belie🥂ves their draw against PSV Eindhoven and defeat to Atletico Madrid at the Parc des Princes have cost them the most.
They have lost three of their last five Champions League home matches (W1 D1), as many as in their previo🤡us 17 games at the Parc des Princes (W11 D3), while Luis Enrique is the only PSG manager to lose as many as three home games in the competition.
"We should have won the games against PSV and Atletico 🌄at home. That is the reality," Luis Enrique said.
"On the pitch, they were two games we should have won but🐷 football isn't as simple as that. With those five points we would already be qualifying for the next round."
