Coach Luis Enrique applauds Ousmane Dembele’s influence on PSG
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Paris Saint-Germain's Ousmane Dembele celebrates after scoring against Brest in their 3-0 Champions League win.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS – Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique heaped praise on Ousmane Dembele after the Frenchman’s brilliant two-goal display in their Champions League play-off first-leg win at Brest.
PSG cruised to a commanding 3-0 victory on Feb 11, with Dembele tormenting the Brest defence throughout the match. After the final whistle, Enrique lauded the 27-year-old forward, who has scored 15 goals in his last eight matches and 23 for the season.
“You’d have to ask him what he ate at Christmas. He is a player full of confidence,” the Spanish coach said.
“Back when I played PlayStation as a kid, he was the kind of player you’d choose when you needed someone to change the game.
“He was already good last season, but in 2025 he is even better. You can see his teammates looking for him and finding him. He has an impeccable attitude.”
Vitinha opened the scoring for PSG at the Stade de Roudourou in Guingamp with a penalty just before the midway point in the first half, and Dembele swept in a second on the stroke of half-time before netting again on 66 minutes.
With the home leg on Feb 19 looking to be straightforward, Enrique acknowledged PSG were in a good position to reach the competition’s last 16.
“There is a consistency that makes the team better. Brest made us suffer. We defended well. Our team is built to attack. We are on a very good run,” he added.
Dembele, meanwhile, praised his teammates for his current form.
“It wasn’t easy. Brest are a team we know very well,” he said after the win over their fellow Ligue 1 side.
“We stayed focused from beginning to end and got the job done. But it is not over yet, so we need to remain focused to finish it off at the Parc des Princes. Everyone is focused and playing really well and that helps me to score goals if I am in the right positions to finish the chances.”
In other matches, Borussia Dortmund forward Serhou Guirassy scored one and set up another in a 3-0 victory at Sporting Lisbon to put last season’s finalists on course for a spot in the last 16.
Champions League top scorer Guirassy headed in his 10th goal of the competition on the hour mark, before providing Pascal Gross with a perfect assist to double the lead in the 68th.
Karim Adeyemi added another in the 82nd minute, completing a textbook counter-attack, to mark a winning European debut on the Dortmund bench for Niko Kovac ahead of next week’s return leg.
“You cannot come here and dominate against Sporting, but in the first half we were far too slow,” the Croatian coach said.
“After the break, we increased the speed and scored great goals. I was happy to see that physical commitment. To play here like that is not easy. Sporting are a good team and we saw it in the first half. We did not have the initiative.
“We had to play faster, circulate it with fewer touches. We could have scored maybe one more goal.”
Juventus substitute Samuel Mbangula snatched a late winner as the Italian giants beat PSV Eindhoven 2-1 at home.
The Belgian’s 82nd-minute close-range finish handed Juve a slender advantage to take to the Netherlands after PSV fought back from a half-time deficit.
A thunderous strike from Weston McKennie had put the hosts into a 34th-minute lead but Ivan Perisic, who turned 36 on Feb 2, put the Dutch side level 10 minutes into the second half.
“When we conceded, we needed to keep playing the way we were beforehand because we were in control,” said Mbangula. “With the quality we have in this team, if we had kept playing as we had done, we could have scored a lot more goals.” REUTERS, AFP
