Luis Enrique delivers Ousmane Dembele injury update ahead of second leg

Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique has confirmed Ousmane Dembele will be fit to play against Arsenal in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final on Wednesday.

Dembele went off with an all-too-familiar hamstring injury during the first leg, rendering him a doubt for Wednesday’s clash, but Enrique expects the Frenchman to feature.

“It has been two days that he was able to train with us,” said Enrique in his pre-match press conference. “You have been able to see it in the training open to the public. And tomorrow, yes, he will be available to play.”

It’s a blow to Arsenal whose players won’t welcome the sight of Dembele after the Ballon d’Or hopeful scored the only goal in last week’s 1-0 win, as the Gunners bid to reach a first UEFA Champions League final since 2006.

PSG take a one-goal lead back to the Parc des Princes, and Enrique insists he’s ‘very confident’ of reaching the final.

“Arsenal have a one-goal deficit to recover from,” said Enrique. “It might seem easy on paper, but we are just going to try to repeat what we have been doing from day one until now.

“We want to be aggressive, so our personality on the ball and repeat areas of our play. With the quality that we have, I feel we have an advantage, and I am very confident."

Despite the advantage, Enrique knows his players will have to ‘suffer’ at some point in the tie, and hopes the vocal PSG fans can help his side over the line.

“We all know the atmosphere that there is in these games here,” said Enrique. “So this confidence that our fans will give us, we will have to give it back to them, in terms of efforts, of mental intelligence.

"Which means knowing that we will suffer at some point of this game, because the opponents doesn't have a favourable result. So it will be like in the first leg, a game balanced between both sides.

“I think we will need to put in a similar performance that in the first leg and most importantly stay true to our philosophy that led us to this point.”

To bet on the UEFA Champions League, check out our betting hubs with everything you need to know including latest fixtures, odds, news, offers and guides.

Liam Williams

• Paris Saint-Germain F.C.
• Arsenal F.C.
• European Football
• • 
  •