Luis Enrique dismisses talk of PSG being the favorite against Aston Villa in Champions League

PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique shrugged off talk of his team being the favorite against Aston Villa ahead of their Champions League quarterfinal match Wednesday.

While PSG has been a regular in the last eight since cash-rich Qatari investor QSI bought the club 14 years ago, and reached the semifinals last season, Villa has not been in this stage of the competition since 1983 — a year after winning the European Cup.

“People said we had no chance against Liverpool (in the round of 16), so in my mind there is no such thing as favorites," Luis Enrique said at a news conference Tuesday. "It's a very open and difficult match for both sides. I know it will be intense.”

PSG wrapped up a record-extending 13th Ligue 1 title on Saturday with six games to spare. Villa is pushing for a top-five finish in the Premier League to get back in the Champions League and is on a seven-game winning run heading to Paris for the first leg.

Luis Enrique, who guided Barcelona to the treble in 2015, is bracing himself for a tactical headache against a Villa side coached by Spanish countryman Unai Emery.

“Their strong point is their versatility, so it's hard to figure out how they're going to play. They can play with a low block (and) they bring the ball out brilliantly," he said. "Their biggest strength is how they attack from the back and reach the second line of attack quickly. It then becomes very hard to contain when teams are breaking from midfield.”

Emery is a respected opponent from the days when both men were coaching in Spain. Emery won the Europa League a record four times — three with Sevilla and one with Villarreal — and guided unheralded Villarreal to the Champions League semifinals in 2022.

“He deserves more recognition because he's a great coach with limitless energy," Luis Enrique said. "He probably already knows everything I am planning to do.”

For his part, Emery was full of praise for PSG, describing the French team — which he coached from 2016-18 — as one of the four favorites to win the Champions League with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Barcelona.

“We are facing PSG after they beat Liverpool, who I think were the favorites before, and they beat them playing fantastic football,” Emery said.

“How we face them, how we show our capacity and potential to respond to everything they demand of us, tactically, individually, with the players they have, is a huge challenge for me and for my players.”

Villa could line up with attacking midfielder Marco Asensio, who is on loan from PSG. So Luis Enrique was asked if he has a problem with the fact Asensio is free to face PSG.

“On the contrary, I am delighted that Marco can play," he said. "I know him perfectly well, he's a player of the highest level, with great technical ability.”

Although PSG is unbeaten in domestic soccer this season, the last three matches have all seen sloppy first-half performances. Luis Enrique looked stunned when his side fell 2-0 down inside the first 30 minutes against second-tier Dunkerque last week in a French Cup semifinal, and he warned his players about lapses in concentration.

“The Champions League does not allow you to switch off for one second," he said. "You can't reach the quarterfinal without being completely focused.”

PSG will be without captain Marquinhos due to suspension for the first leg, and the defense remains vulnerable to set-pieces and corners.

They will also have to get past Villa's larger-than-life goalkeeper Emi Martinez, who traveled to Paris on Tuesday wearing a cap that appeared to display a rooster — a French national emblem — along with trophies he has won with Argentina's national team. Martinez was the goalkeeper when Argentina beat France on penalties in the World Cup final in 2022.

“He is mature, he is responsible,” Emery said of Martinez. “He is getting better controlling his emotions.”

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

FILE - PSG's Marco Asensio celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the French League 1 soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Montpellier at the Parc des Princes in Paris, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

Aston Villa's Marco Asensio scores his side's second goal of the game, during the English Premier League soccer match between Brighton and Hove Albion and Aston Villa, at the American Express Stadium, in Brighton, England, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (John Walton/PA via AP)

Aston Villa's manager Unai Emery, left, and Matty Cash, right, attend a training session in Birmingham, England, Tuesday April 8, 2025, ahead of the Champions League quarter final first leg soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

PSG's Marquinhos, right, and PSG Desire Doue celebrate winning the French League One championship title after the soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Angers at Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Franck Fife, Pool Photo via AP)

PSG's head coach Luis Enrique, celebrates winning the French League One championship title after the soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Angers at Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Franck Fife, Pool Photo via AP)

RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.

Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.

"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.

Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.

Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.

As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.

What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.

The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.

One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.

Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.

“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.

The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.

Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.

Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.

“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)