On the eve of a vital fixture, Lucien Favre and Alassane Plea answered questions from the French and Russian media. The coach and the forward got the return leg of the Round of 32 of the Europa League started, in a match where after a 2-3 defeat in the first leg, Le Gym will need to pull off a real master stroke in order to qualify.

The challenge

Alassane Plea: “We need to score at least two goals to qualify, we know that and we have the quality to do so. It will be an interesting match, we will attack, but we will also need to think about defending, because it is the first thing you need to do. We will need to give 100% and to pull out a huge performance, because it’s a very good team that we are up against. There is a upset to cause, and we all want this. We played superbly in the first half of the first leg, we caused them problems, we can do that again. If we are all at 120% and we give ourselves a chance, there is a way to get through.“

The Red and Black system

Lucien Favre: “We will continue to work this evening (Wednesday), because we haven’t had the time. There was Nantes, then we didn’t train for nearly two days. We don’t know yet what system we will play with, but nothing is out of the question, be it at the start of the match or during.”

The cold:

Alassane Plea: “It’s different from Nice, it is very, very cold (-15° on Wednesday). It’s one of the first times we have seen this. But the cold won’t kill us. We will need to be warm from the get go and to run a lot.”

The opponent

Lucien Favre: "We had already watched several of their games before the first leg. The way they play in tight spaces, in 3s and 4s... they link-up very well because they feel the game together. They are also able to counter when they are dominated. Against them, we need to be very intelligent tactically. Manuel Fernandes? He is an excellent player who can use both feet, very quickly. His passing with his left and right often catches out the opponent, he breaks the lines with a good strike. But he isn’t the only good player. There are many of them, even just Miranchuk, Farfan and Ari…”

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