Only after the 4-0 in the duel with RKC Waalwijk, Feyenoord coach Arne Slot started thinking about the duel with AS Roma. Although the coach of the team from Rotterdam has not yet made an extensive analysis of Thursday’s opponent’s game, he already addressed the many questions during the press conference about the team that was still too strong for Feyenoord in the conference final last season.
“I can close my eyes and tell you how they play”
The first game from the quarterfinals of the Europa League is on the menu on Thursday and after the game with RKC had been decided, Slot changed with a view to the Roman reunion. Orkun Kökçü was hit before the break and is doing Ramadan, Quilindschy Hartman experienced another intense duel with his offensive intentions just like Wednesday and Lutsharel Geertruida has only just returned from his injury. They were all, just like star player Santiago Giménez, taken to the side with a view to the duel with Roma. That also applied to Mats Wieffer, but that was because he was on edge, Slot said. Moreover, Alireza Jahanbakhsh’s injury seems to be not too bad, Slot expects that the Iranian who dropped out just before kick-off can be present on Thursday.
In view of the busy schedule, Slot left the analysis of Roma to his assistant Pusic for the time being. That didn’t mean he couldn’t answer questions about Jose Mourinho’s team. “I can close my eyes and tell you how they play. It’s the same coach, they have two or three new players, some individually good players. Yes. But in terms of the way of playing it will not be very different from the Conference League matches. And I watched it many times…”
“We did a lot of things right in that final”
“After the final I sometimes thought: how else could we have solved that?,” Slot admitted. “But we did a lot of things right in that final. We only gave one chance away, which was unfortunately a goal right away. We also had enough chances to score a goal ourselves, but it was not the game we wanted. That’s right. Because we found out. And if there’s one thing you shouldn’t do against Mourinho’s teams… We haven’t played any more football for the last half hour.”
Although Mourinho does not always aim for the beauty prize with his Roma. Slot still speaks highly of the upcoming opponent. “You always have to respect clubs that win. I recently saw an article about Roma’s debt, but I don’t have the impression that they are the best paying club in Italy and they are still at the top and make it to the quarter finals in Europe after last year’s Conference League to have won. So you can only respect that,” said the manager.
