There’s all to play for in N5 on Tuesday night when we host Bayer Leverkusen in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16.
The tie is currently level at 1-1 on aggregate thanks to Kai Havertz’s 89th-minute penalty after Robert Andrich opened the scoring in Germany last Wednesday.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference at the Sobha Realty Training Centre this week, our manager was asked what he’s expecting from Leverkusen tomorrow.
“Very much the same and watching them play against Bayern Munich at the weekend, very similar,” he said. “So again, really well coached, a team with a very clear structure, really good individuals.
“Obviously we are in the stage, in the competition that we are in right now, so we know what we have to do, and in front of our crowd, with our people, putting all the energy in the world again, hopefully we are going to do it.”
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So what will we need to do better in the second leg, and how much can we channel the experience we’ve accrued over the last few seasons in Europe’s prestigious competition?
“Especially in the first half, and especially a lot of actions that we didn’t even finish, and we allowed counter-attacks there, which is the worst thing that we can do against them as well,” Mikel said. “We will step up, we will make better decisions for sure, and be more of a threat in that intention.
“A lot of factors will contribute for us to be in the quarter-finals tomorrow night after the game, and we need to put every single element that we have to be in our favour to achieve that.
“They have a lot of quality individually in a lot of areas of the pitch, and as every team they have their strengths, their weaknesses, and we will try to target them.”
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