Blessin: “We’ll have to go to the limit to force them into mistakes”
Friday, 09. May 2025, 18:45 Uhr
Next up for the Boys in Brown is an away game at third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday (17.30 CET). Head coach Alexander Blessin spoke to the media in the run-up and here’s the pick of what he had to say…
Alexander Blessin on…
...the injury situation: “We’ve had to compensate for injuries often enough this season. We have Adam Dźwigała or Lars Ritzka up our sleeve for Siebe Van der Heyden and then there’s Ben Voll, who’s impressed me all year in training and in the friendlies. Injuries such as the one to Elias Saad are hard to take but we’ve always had good attacking options as well. Our variability has taken a bit of a hit but that won’t stop us fielding 11 decent lads on Sunday.”
...matches elsewhere on Saturday: “We have one more training session tomorrow and that’s all we’re focusing on. After that we might watch a few snippets together before we get on the coach. It’s in our own hands and we want to sort it on the pitch. We’ve had a normal week and prepared well and nothing tomorrow will change that. Everyone is focused on Sunday, when we want to achieve our target and get our reward for an entire season. I’m upbeat because the lads have been very focused all week.”
...staying up without kicking a ball: “That wouldn’t be a problem for me. I’ve no objections but we still want to win the game. It would give us a good feeling and perhaps some additional motivation to put in another good performance at Frankfurt.”
...opponents Frankfurt: “They’re a force at home with the fans behind them and we’ll have to battle against that. I like these games and as far as I can tell the lads do, too. We know they’re determined to make the Champions League. We know about their strengths and their individual quality. We can’t afford to give them any space, but we won’t be able to keep them out all the time. We need clarity in our gegenpressing and good spells of possession and we mustn’t give the ball away needlessly. They’ll be the most important factors on Sunday. In the first game we showed we can handle it to a certain degree. We have to be very clear mentally and do the right things. It’s a question of being brave and handing over well in certain positions. We’re ready. You need a bit of luck as well and we aim to earn it.”
…the Eintracht defence: “They haven’t always had the best rest defence, especially in transition. We do see some options where we can hurt them. Their backline are very good in the build-up. We’ll have to go to the limit to force them into mistakes. You can look to the first game to see how we did that. We’re capable of hurting them there every so often. We had some good sequences but simply couldn’t score.”
...his battery with the season almost over: “Straight after a game it’s empty. I always need the day off to spend some time with my family. Those 24 hours help me to recharge my battery and come back raring to go. Thirty-four games take it out of you, but I’m not whacked yet. The energy levels will keep me going for the last few days.”
Photo: Witters
