“We want to be tough to play against” | OneFootball

Ahead of the match against fourth-placed Leipzig, Albert Riera discusses team news, the opposition and Eintracht’s approach to the game.

Eintracht host Leipzig in a crunch Bundesliga Matchday 30 encounter at Deutsche Bank Park on Saturday evening (kick-off 17:30 CEST).At his pre-match press conference, head coach Albert Riera spoke about…

… team news: “Kaua Santos, Jean-Mattéo Bahoya, Nnamdi Collins and Rasmus Kristensen are all absent. Bahoya’s not quite back at full fitness yet. Together with the doctor, we decided that we’d rather be without him for one or two more games, rather than for the rest of the season. Hopefully he’ll be available again next week. The plan is for Rasmus to resume training with us on Monday or Tuesday. After that, we’ll see how he feels.”

… the 6-0 defeat against Leipzig in the reverse fixture: “That game was a few months ago now. We haven’t gone back over it. Football is all about the present, not the past. Our team is different, the way we play is different. We’re ready.”

… Eintracht’s approach to the game: “We’ll never change the way we play. One of our aims is to have the feeling that we won’t lose, even on bad days. Positions and systems aren’t the most important thing. What matters is how we prepare for the game, regardless of the opposition.” 

… facing the youngest side in the league: “We’re also one of the youngest teams in the league, but that’s not important. You always need a balance between young and old. It doesn’t change our approach in the slightest. We’re focusing on doing a lot of things right. We need to be very good in possession against this opponent.” 

… Leipzig’s strengths: “Leipzig have good wingers and midfielders who make late runs. We looked at that in training this week, and we worked very well. We can’t give them too much space because that’s how they hurt you. Both teams prefer to play with the ball than without it.” 

… his expectations: “Ideally you want to play in the opposition’s half all the time. Whenever Leipzig have the ball, we want to win it back as high up the pitch as possible. Having said that, we know all about their ability to create chances, so we’ll have to defend compactly and stay calm. We want to be tough to play against.”