Luis Enrique expecting stern PSG test

Luis Enrique feels his Barcelona team will need to be at their peak to continue their impressive start to the season at Paris Saint-Germain.

Former Celta Vigo boss Luis Enrique has enjoyed a near-flawless beginning to his reign at Camp Nou, with Barca having won six and drawn one of their competitive fixtures this term while keeping seven clean sheets in the process.

By contrast, French champions PSG have struggled in the opening weeks of the campaign, with an injury to talisman – and former Barca striker – Zlatan Ibrahimovic contributing to a lack of potency in front of goal.

Despite PSG’s below-par form and the absence of Ibrahimovic – who will miss out due to a heel problem – Luis Enrique is expecting his side to face a stern test in Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League trip to the Parc des Princes, which sees the two favourites to qualify from Group F go head-to-head.

“That Ibrahimovic is not playing is an important loss for PSG, but it won’t change our game plan,” the 44-year-old said at his pre-match media conference on Monday.

“Of course it’s important [to finish top of the pool], but we’ll have to wait and see how we do. Theoretically, we’re the two favourites in the group.

“To beat PSG we’ll have to play at our very, very best.

“But I don’t know if this game will decide the group – all kinds of things happen in the group stages.

“We need to focus on tomorrow’s game and tomorrow’s opponent.”