“He’s one of the best coaches in the world.” It didn’t take long for Xavi to take out the polishing brush about Luis Enrique, this Tuesday, on the eve of PSG-Barça in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League, Wednesday (9 p.m.), at the Parc des Princes. The two men know each other well having played together in Barcelona and in the national team. Xavi also finished his playing career under the orders of “Lucho” with the Blaugrana. Which “Lucho”, who was not trained at Barça and who played at Real, posed as an ambassador of the Barcelona philosophy, more than Xavi, despite being a child of the Masia.

The question was obviously raised with the current Barcelona coach at a press conference. “You know Luis Enrique, he’s like that,” he said at first, a bit amused. We have a good relationship on a personal level. I have a lot of respect for him. I really think he’s one of the best coaches in the world. He has a very good team, he can win (the Champions League). So we face a complicated opponent. Barça wants to win too. We both have Barça DNA, like Mikel Arteta (Arsenal coach) and Pep Guardiola (Manchester City). All four of us are in the quarter-finals and we have the same goal. You have to do a lot of things to win and it will be up to the players to express themselves. We aim for the same goal and we identify with the same thing. Luis Enrique and I are looking for the same thing. That is to say a place in the C1 semi-final.

Also read “I represent Barça better”: Luis Enrique’s tackle on Xavi before PSG-Barça

Winner of the Champions League under the orders of Luis Enrique in 2015, Xavi remembered this season. “It was a difficult season, but we progressed throughout the season. It was my last year. I was excited to finish in the best possible way. We won the hat-trick, I was the captain. I have a very good relationship with him, I was the captain and he was the coach. I tried to help him in difficult times. I have good memories of that time,” he summarizes, evoking the “great level of demands” of Luis Enrique.

For him, however, one is not a better ambassador than the other of Barcelona’s DNA. No more than Arteta and Guardiola. “We worked with the Barcelona philosophy. We all played in the middle too and we can see the game in a more global way. But I think the difference is the philosophy of Barça, which we all have,” he explains, in response to a question relating to the presence of these four former Barça players in the quarter-finals of the “ Champions’. In the end, Xavi did not want to get dragged down the path of controversy: “I don’t think it’s a battle between Luis Enrique and me, it’s PSG-Barça. The players will be the protagonists. It will depend on the players, not on us. And to conclude: “I am perhaps better than him in one area, him in another… In the end, we have the same goal. There is nothing more to say. You can always ask him the question tomorrow (Wednesday).”