Ståle: - We will go for it tomorrow
24 hours before FC Copenhagen face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, head coach Ståle Solbakken held a press conference in London to discuss his team’s chances ahead of the UEFA Champions League tie:
by Joe Short
- We need a miracle. Obviously we are in a very tough situation, as we haven’t been our best since the winter break. We are not in the form we were in before Christmas, which is down a little bit to injuries, but most of all down to the first goal in the first game (against Chelsea). You set yourself up for a game like Chelsea for three months, and then concede a goal so early in the game: that was a tough one for us. We didn’t manage to break Chelsea down at all in the first game.
- I think it’s easy to say it’s down to one thing, and that’s which team scores the first goal. If we score the first goal the tie may change; the psychology of the game will be different. We have been down and out before, and then we beat Ajax 2-0 in Amsterdam to qualify in 2006, so we will go for it tomorrow.
- I think we will play our normal game; for us it’s the same if we only have ten minutes to score a second goal or if we score in the first minute. We will try to be as compact defensively as possible. We had five or six counter attacking opportunities in PARKEN against Chelsea, which in fact ended up as chances for Chelsea because we lost the ball unnecessarily in vital areas. We will try to score the first goal and think positively. If Sunderland can score three then we can score two.
Solbakken was asked on the fitness of Mikael Antonsson, who was brought off before half time in the AaB game at the weekend with a suspected muscle strain:
- He’s a little bit better. His heart is at least okay, although his backside is not so good. We will try to warm him up but not push him to the limit today, because there’s still 24 hours before kick off. He will need another 24 hours. His prognosis has been okay since we took him out of the Aalborg game. As soon as he felt something we took him out because we’re still in the competition, and we want to give him the chance to be ready.
How will the team accommodate a hole in defence, now Zdenek Pospech is suspended for the tie?
- The suspension means either Oscar Wendt or William Kvist will play right back. However, that is also down to wherever or not Antonsson is ready or not, and where we will use Jesper Grønkjær. Obviously we’ll miss Pospech, but this is good preparation for next season.
Grønkjær himself was also at the press conference to speak about his return to Stamford Bridge:
- It’s going to be a fantastic atmosphere tomorrow. It will be a walk down memory lane for me. I’ve got great memories here but now I play for FC Copenhagen and I want to win here. We know we didn’t play our best game in Copenhagen and we want to keep our dream alive. As we all know, our chances are slim tomorrow. We know we’re going to play against a team that on paper is better than us. We have to hit form now and create a win. It’s really been a dream for Copenhagen over the last five years, and especially this last six months. We want to reach that high again.
It was raised in the press conference that Grønkjær is on a Stamford Bridge hat trick, having scored in his last two matches here some seven years ago. Before the winger could reply however, Solbakken jumped in jokingly: - let’s hope he doesn’t score another goal for Chelsea tomorrow.
At pitch side, fck.dk caught up with Dame N’Doye for his view of the tie ahead:
- This is a game like any other. I always say, it’s 11 against 11 – it doesn’t matter who you are playing. You have to be strong and play your football. This is not revenge. Our performance in PARKEN was difficult because we didn’t have many top games to prepare. So, we will do our best now we’ve had a few more games. We’re always trying to get better. We’ve had two more games since the first leg so we should be better tomorrow.
