Head coach Peter Bosz and left wing defender Sergiño Dest gave a press conference Monday afternoon ahead of the meeting with Borussia Dortmund. Both see in 'Die Borussen' a formidable opponent for the eighth final of the UEFA Champions League.
"Hopefully it's not the match of the year, because that means more will follow," Sergiño began the press conference at the Philips Stadium. The technical defender thinks both teams can come away with a victory. "It's true that they are struggling a bit more in the league than usual, but they finished first in their UEFA Champions League pool. That's what I'm looking at, because that's against the best teams."
It is not the only difference between the analysis of the assembled newsroom and the left back. "I mainly look at the players who play on my side. What are their qualities and how can I neutralize them. Donyell Malen, for example: that's a particularly good player with speed and technical ball handling. I know him from my time at Ajax, so I have a good idea of him," Sergiño says.
Key to success
Head coach Peter Bosz is looking forward to the game in the eighth final. "It's an opponent I have a lot of respect for, which is precisely why I want to beat them very badly. We know where we can hurt them and what we have to watch out for. Fortunately, we have already gained experience in the group stage against opponents of this level. The away game with Arsenal was very important afterwards. We were able to measure ourselves against one of the best teams in the world. We learned a lot from that."
In the group stage, the German opponent excelled in turnovers, but Bosz comments: "They also possess good positional play. How they play will therefore also depend on us. It is important that we dare to play football. That is the key to ultimately winning the match." The coach also sees an important player return for the encounter, as Johan Bakayoko is back in training.
Saturday the Head Coach actually had a day off, yet he secretly prepared extra for Tuesday's encounter. "I thought a lot about it: how should we approach it and how am I going to convey this to the team. I'm not nervous, above all I'm really looking forward to it."
Follow the duel with Borussia Dortmund via the liveblog.