From ego-ridden team to complete package - why PSG pose ultimate test

Luis Enrique's expertise at rebuilding a culture as well as a team means Arsenal will confront the complete package when they meet holders PSG in the Champions League final. By Phil McNulty Chief football writer Luis Enrique's expertise at rebuilding a culture as well as a football team means Arsenal will confront the complete package when they meet Paris St-Germain in the Champions League final. Moments later PSG were able to celebrate reaching a second successive final - and the chance to retain the crown they won so brilliantly by beating Inter Milan 5-0 last season . Luis Enrique danced on the Allianz Arena turf, as he did after the 2025 final, with PSG delivering the latest compelling evidence they must be counted among the great sides of recent memory. Arsenal will be confident in their first Champions League final for 20 years, but there is no escaping the fact they face a mammoth task on 30 May in Hungary.

And that is because Gunners boss Mikel Arteta must overcome a master strategist and inspirational footballing architect in his PSG counterpart Luis Enrique. Luis Enrique, who also won the Champions League with Barcelona in 2015 , ordered his players to park egos at the door - or jettisoned those who would not. The Brazil centre-half arrived at PSG from Roma in 2013 , surviving Luis Enrique's cull of big names because the coach is wise enough to see a consummate professional and world-class defender when he sees one. Ruiz's pass in the build-up to Dembele's goal was a thing of beauty - but he then reverted to doing the defensive dirty work Luis Enrique demands and which his team seems only too happy to deliver. An obsessive who lived through tragedy - can Luis Enrique deliver PSG dream?

Whereas the PSG Luis Enrique inherited was a collection of broken parts, the pieces he has put in shape now fit neatly. Ex-Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock told BBC Match Of The Day: "It is very difficult to look past PSG as winners in Budapest. The only weakness I really see in the team is their goalkeeper Matvei Safonov. "One of the issues Arsenal will have is trying to contain the PSG full-backs. "Whichever way you look at them, they are a brilliant team and you struggle to find any weakness.

Why was Neves handball against Bayern not a penalty? And Luis Enrique's side did not have an easy ride in Munich. Not for one moment did Kompany's side give up on somehow unsettling this magnificent PSG team. Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, working as a TNT Sports pundit, said: "A couple of years ago they had prima donnas, egos in the team but [Luis Enrique] wasn't having it. "He pushed them aside and built a team on work-rate and principles.

This team could dominate for years to come. This is what Arsenal and Arteta must find a way to navigate past in Budapest. Watch highlights of every Champions League game from 22:00 on Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app. Luis Enrique's expertise at rebuilding a culture as well as a team means Arsenal will confront the complete package when they meet holders PSG in the Champions League final. From ego-ridden team to complete package - why PSG pose ultimate test