Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic wary of PSG's 'unbelievable quality'

French side head to Germany for Champions League semi-final fresh from wrapping up the Ligue 1 title

Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic says focusing just on Kylian Mbappe would be a mistake. Reuters

Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzic says their semi-final opponents Paris Saint-Germain have been "built to win the Champions League", ahead of Wednesday night's first leg in Germany.

Terzic, whose side topped a group including PSG but only took a point from their two games, believes that lifting the European Cup has been the "main objective" of the club since they were taken over by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011.

"The project in Paris began with the goal of winning the Champions League," Terzic said. "That's been their main objective for a decade."

PSG were crowned Ligue 1 champions on Sunday, their 10th league title in the past 12 seasons. That domestic dominance, however, has never translated into European success. PSG's best result came in 2020 when they lost the final to Bayern Munich.

Dortmund, who won the competition in 1997, are playing in the semi-finals for the fifth time in the club's history and for the first time since 2013, when they also lost to Bayern in the final.

Terzic singled out Kylian Mbappe for particular praise, but said that focusing solely on him would be a terrible mistake.

He said: "It's the question you hear the most, 'How do you stop Kylian Mbappe?'. But if you focus only on Kylian Mbappe, then comes Ousmane Dembele or [Goncalo] Ramos, or Vitinha, or [Achraf] Hakimi, or [Randal] Kolo Muani and all the others. They have unbelievable quality.

"If we want to focus on one thing, then we need to focus on the ball. If we worry about the ball – there's just one – then it's much harder for them to score."

Dortmund were held 1-1 on home turf by the Parisians in the group stage, having earlier been beaten 2-0 in France. It was Terzic's side who went through as top seeds, though, thanks to their superior results against Newcastle and AC Milan. They've since beaten PSV Eindhoven and Atletico Madrid to reach the last four.

"Were we the favourites in the group? Against Atletico Madrid? I don't know," Terzic said when asked if his side will be underdogs. "Maybe we're the team with less experience, but we may have the greatest hunger.

"When everyone digs in, not just those on the field and on the bench but everyone in the stadium, we've got a huge opportunity – and we need to take it."

Terzic said several important players, including quarter-final goalscorers Marcel Sabitzer and Sebastien Haller, would be fit to play.

PSG, meanwhile, head to Germany following a 3-3 draw with Le Havre in which manager Luis Enrique chose to rest several regular starters, including Mbappe.

Monaco's 3-2 defeat to Lyon the following day ensured the title headed to the capital for the third year in a row and gave PSG a timely boost ahead of their return to European action.

Enrique hasn't shied away from trophy talk ahead of the first leg, instead promoting the idea they could finish the season with a historic quadruple.

"I think we are heading into the final phase of the season in great form," said Enrique. "I wouldn't have imagined this scenario going as positively as this, but what happens in the future is what happens. I would say we are in fantastic form in every way. We have almost every player available. Our supporters are very happy.

"The club has so much ambition to achieve something else. It is a really attractive end to the season, which we are motivated for, and we will continue to fight to achieve all our targets.

"The quadruple? Of course we talk about it. It's a motivation," added Enrique, whose side won the domestic Super Cup to go along with their league crown and will face Lyon in the French Cup final on May 25.

"It is a way of writing the club's history and the city's history. But most important is not what we win but how we win, how we play."