Slavia Praha coach Jindrich Trpisovsky described the game against AC Milan as a birthday party and commented that it would be the highlight of his career.
Milan host Slavia on the night of San Siro in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16, and Stefano Pioli’s men may well be the favourites on paper, but they deserve to wait for two tricky games.
The Czech powerhouses have established themselves in European football competitions, having secured a remarkable draw against Inter at San Siro in the Champions League a few years ago and beating Roma this season.
The magnitude of the occasion is underlined by the number of fans that Slavia will bring from the Czech capital. According to estimates published on the club’s official website, there will be around 5,000 away fans to fill the away section.
Sure enough, Slavia arrived in Italy on Tuesday afternoon and their head coach, Trpisovsky, spoke at San Siro at his pre-match press conference, which was broadcast via MilanNews.
What Milan are you looking forward to tomorrow?
“We’re going to want a functionality that’s a bit similar to the one that Inter is against. Obviously it takes intelligent intellectual and physical preparation, I’m pleased to be here again. I hope and believe it will be a similar match. “
“Milan know how to play very well, Leao is one of the best in the world. We’ll see how we do it. We will also pay a lot of attention to the midfield, where Bennacer is. They have a lot of experience: they will play very well. If we play a bit like Inter a few years ago, we will have to be very strong defensively.
“We’re going to put all our strength into it. Milan use a lot of players and they are all of the highest level. The Milan goalkeeper even provides assists: it’s a rare and exclusive thing. We have to be very attentive to everything.
Are you making plans to replace your lineup to face Milan?
“We played 120 minutes last week and then on Sunday. We also replaced some players due to injuries. Now we are waiting for the last educational consultation to find out who will be fit, especially among those who have played the last two. “games.
“We actually play in a 4-3-3, we have to see how to fix things in defence tomorrow, I still have to fine-tune the existing for a moment, to build a bigger defence so Milan can have more difficulties. “.
“We have realised how Milan play and we have to be in the line-up at the moment. Of course, we would like to continue as we did in the last few games, in which we only conceded 3 goals.
“We know we’re probably in for a different kind of game. It’s difficult to prepare against someone like Leao: you don’t come across players like him.
What will it be like to play against Milan?
“For me, the game here is the pinnacle of my career. I Baresi, Costacurta. . . At the time, they were only noticed on television and even rarely. Playing against Milan is a birthday party for us, against a team like this, with this tradition, with this stadium. I hope to do more than I did against Roma.
Who would you take to Milan?
“It’s hard to say. In fact, I’m pleased that my players are facing Milan. I love Leao, we see him play a lot.
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