Luis Enrique sends Mikel Arteta message before PSG vs Arsenal final showdown

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·7 May 2026

Luis Enrique sends Mikel Arteta message before PSG vs Arsenal final showdown

Champions League showpiece sees old friends and team-mates go head to head once again on biggest stage

Luis Enrique is expecting a “difficult” test when Paris Saint-Germain come up against Arsenal in the Champions League final as he prepares to lock horns with long-time friend Mikel Arteta once more.

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Holders PSG reached the showpiece fixture in European club football for the second season in a row on Wednesday night, with a 1-1 second-leg draw away against Bayern Munich in Germany enough to seal a 6-5 aggregate victory in the semi-finals having initially edged a nine-goal thriller 5-4 on home soil last week.

It set up a final showdown with Arsenal at the Puskas Arena in Budapest on May 30, with the Gunners having secured their progress 24 hours earlier when Bukayo Saka’s late first-half goal sank Atletico Madrid 1-0 on the night and 2-1 on aggregate following a controversial 1-1 first-leg draw in Spain.

It will be a rematch of last season’s semi-final tie, which PSG won 3-1 on aggregate after a 1-0 away win in north London was followed by a tense 2-1 home triumph, before the Ligue 1 giants then lifted the Champions League trophy for the first time with a 5-0 thrashing of Inter Milan in Munich.

The game also sees Enrique once more go up against Arteta, a former team-mate at Barcelona with whom he has stayed in touch ever since their paths first crossed at the Camp Nou in the late 1990s.

Arteta spoke at length before last season’s Champions League semi-finals on his great admiration for Enrique and the support he showed him when he was trying to break through as a youngster at Barca, also hailing his coaching exploits and character, calling his fellow Spaniard an “unbelievable personality”.

Arteta said then: “For me, he’s one of the best coaches in the world and someone who helped me a huge amount. I have the utmost respect both for how he is as a person and his way of working.”

Familiar rivals: Luis Enrique and Mikel Arteta have been friends since their time as team-mates at Barcelona

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Such warm respect is clearly reciprocated by Enrique, who praised the job Arteta has done at Arsenal as he predicted a tough challenge in the final - but expressed his confidence in PSG’s attacking style to get the job done.

“I appreciate Mikelito Arteta!” Enrique said after PSG squeezed past Bayern, per Fabrizio Romano. “We used to be team-mates when we were kids, he did a great job at Arsenal.

“It will be a difficult, hard game but we believe in our football style.”