Evening everybody
The pre-match quotes from each side’s coaches are, in this case, unusually instructive. Within each comment, each manager makes it perfectly clear exactly how importantly they rate this tournament - for some the chance of battling into a Europa League semi-final is of the utmost importance, for others it is a nuisance. For one manager, it appears to be an opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing.
Napoli v Wolfsburg (first leg Wolfsburg 1-4 Napoli)
This one is dead and both coaches know it. Rafa Benítez, the Napoli manager, is positively delighted about that and, as his time at Chelsea proved, he is always pleased to be in the hunt for a European trophy. “The club, the players and me have the same aim – we want to win, nothing else,” he said and the team’s first leg performance was so dominant that, this evening, they will be able to sit back and cruise. Wolfsburg are well aware of that. “Obviously the result in Wolfsburg doesn’t give us much room for optimism,” said manager Dieter Hecking. “We have to be honest: it’s going to be really difficult.”
Zenit v Sevilla (first leg Sevilla 2-1 Zenit)
Denis Suarez’s 88th minute goal for Sevilla separated the sides in the first leg, both managers are desperate for a win here and both have managed sides to the trophy (Unai Emery at Sevilla last year and André Villas-Boas at Porto in 2011). Villas-Boas will welcome Danny, Hulk, Smolnikov and Criscito back to the side and says: “It’s important that we want to win; we understand the significance of this game”. He added, somewhat cryptically, that Sevilla: “play emotional, creative football and have deserved their success ... This will be an outstanding match.”
Sevilla have not lost since February and are coming out of the blocks at full speed for this one. Here’s Emery: “We play to win in every competition. The Europa League is very important for us. We don’t think about which tournament is more important, we think about winning the next match. We’re ready for the fans to put us under pressure. We know how to overcome this, it spurs us on.”
So that all sounds quite exciting.
Fiorentina v Dynamo Kyiv (first leg Dynamo Kyiv 1-1 Fiorentina)
Khouma Babacar, who hit the first leg equaliser for Fiorentina two minutes into stoppage time, is now out for the rest of the season and the Florence coach, Vincenzo Montella, admits that is a problem. Vince has been talking very passionately about how much the Europa League means to the club, in very much the manner that people talk about such things when they actually mean the opposite. “We must be very careful against Dynamo. In the first leg we made some silly decisions. We know about them, but the message is clear: we care about the Europa League. We know the journey is difficult, but we will keep coming back and trying hard.” Hmm.
Serhiy Rebrov, the Dynamo manager, has been talking about sightseeing though. “Florence is a very nice city, but we have come here to compete; this is not a holiday,” he parped, before taking a slight dig at the Ukranian League. “Fiorentina are an excellent side, full of excellent players. They are used to playing at a high level. The only team of that calibre we have at home is Shakhtar Donetsk.”
Dnipro v Club Brugge (first leg Club Brugge 0-0 Dnipro)
For both managers, the focus appears to be on avoiding penalties and injuries - which is hardly the sort of battle-cry stuff the marketing chaps at Europa League HQ will be dreaming of. Here’s Myron Markevych, the Dnipro coach: “We have been missing a lot of important players and overall our [substitutes’] bench is too small for the Europa League. We’ll have more or less a full lineup for this match, so I hope we don’t lose any players during the game. This is what I’m afraid of more than anything.”
And here’s Michel Preud’homme, the Club Brugge coach: “I don’t think they have an advantage from the first leg. Sure, we were not able to score a goal, but we didn’t concede either. It’s still 50-50. I agree with Markevych that it’d be better to avoid a shoot-out. But if we have to, we will be ready.”
Both sides are in reasonable nick, with form in all competitions that looks very much like this: Dnipro: WDDWWW | Club Brugge: WDLWWW. So, basically, penalties it is, isn’t it?
