Emmanuel Petit on PSG-Barcelona, why Luis Enrique has won him over and advice for Kylian Mbappe at Real Madrid

Ahead of Barcelona’s clash with Paris Saint-Germain, Football España caught up with ex-Barcelona player and French World Cup-winner Emmanuel Petit. 

Barcelona are looking to put three somewhat traumatic years in Europe behind them, while Paris Saint-Germain continue to hunt for their first trophy. Do you feel the weight of history behind these clubs, or is this something of a media invention?

You feel the weight of the club. When you come into a club with a huge European history, you feel it. Especially when you go to a club like Real Madrid, and you see their trophy cases with all the cups they have won, in some clubs when you leave the dressing room, you see a motto or something on the wall. So you know the history and the tradition. And Barcelona and Real Madrid are among those clubs.

But I think maybe nowadays, football has changed a lot, maybe something has changed in the player’s minds. They are a lot more mature, a lot of these players don’t even know the history of the clubs to be honest with you. Perhaps the last generation were the last ones to be focused on the history of football. I remember myself, with teammates, at the national team or at club level, we would be talking about the history of the club, with those players who knew it, how many trophies they have, how many finals they’ve reached, that sort of thing.

I don’t want to be rude, but I have the feeling that the new generation don’t care about that.

It’s not a groundbreaking question, but where will Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona win and lose this clash?

Barcelona had a lot of time to prepare the game, they haven’t played for over a week, at this stage of the season, playing every three days, you’re tired, so it’s very good for them. Paris