Paris St Germain boss Luis Enrique has joked that he is still as annoying as he was when he made his first trip to Athletic Bilbao as a manager.
The 55-year-old Spaniard will take the Champions League holders to San Mames to face Athletic on Wednesday evening having done the same as Celta Vigo’s head coach for the first fixture at the new stadium in September 2013, a game his side lost 3-2 to Ernesto Valverde’s men.
Asked how he has changed as a coach during the intervening years, Luis Enrique told a press conference: “Let me think back. That was in 2013-14 – I am the same. I am just as annoying.”
📍 Bilbao#AthleticPSG I #UCL
— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) December 9, 2025
The PSG boss will go head-to-head with fellow former Barcelona head coach Valverde once again at San Mames with the 61-year-old currently in his third spell at the Basque club’s helm.
He said: “It is a pleasure to see Ernesto Valverde. He’s a coach I admire, not just his ability as a coach in terms of tactics and managing a team, but his attitude, his conduct, the way he uses language.
“He also knows what it means to coach Barcelona. I wish him the best. It is a real honour to face Ernesto Valverde and Athletic Club.”
PSG flew to Spain sitting in second place in both the European and Ligue 1 tables, behind Premier League Arsenal in the former and Lens domestically.
They will run out looking for their 49th victory of 2025 in all competitions and having won seven of their last Champions League away fixtures, scoring 23 goals in the process.
Athletic’s hopes of progression appear forlorn as they prepare to host the reigning champions having collected only four points to date, making the French side hot favourites in the eyes of many.
However, Luis Enrique said: “It is clear that if anyone thinks it will be easy, we will just have to wait and see what it is like at 9pm tomorrow because there will be nothing easy about it.
“My players have experience and for those of us who have been here before, I’m sure that my team will not relax. I can’t guarantee the result, but they certainly won’t be relaxed. If you relax at San Mames, that certainly means that you will lose.
“From the first minute, we will certainly try to give our all in this competition. That is a clear target for us. After winning it last year, our target is to win it again, we can’t hide from that.”
Ousmane Dembele will miss out through illness, while Lucas Chevalier, Lucas Beraldo and Achraf Hakimi continue to work their way back to fitness.
