Jose's five-point preview - Dinamo Zagreb
Jose Mourinho looks ahead to our UEFA Europa League round of 16, second leg against Dinamo Zagreb at the Maksimir Stadium this evening (5.55pm UK).
Remember, we lead 2-0 from last week’s first leg at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
1 - Team news
Jose gave us the latest team news, including updates on Heung-Min Son and Giovani Lo Celso...
Jose: “Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is suspended, Joe Rodon is not on the Europa list and Sonny is injured. Apart from that, everything is fine, with Lo Celso back to the squad. Sonny has no chance for this match, no chance at all. I even feel it's very doubtful for the weekend. I believe he will need the international break to recover totally. Gio has missed a lot of games, 22 games is around four months of competition, or so. It’s a lot. We miss his quality, I also think we miss the character, because he’s one of the guys with a competitive nature. We’re very happy he’s back.”
2 - More on Gio
Jose was asked further about Gio’s return in his pre-match press conference...
Jose: “Gio is a very talented player, good, competitive qualities and of course we’ve missed him for a long time. I don’t think he has 90 minutes in his legs, but he looked very confident in three training sessions he did with the team on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I don’t feel any limitations on him. The team needs him because he’s a quality player, and as I was saying, he’s very competitive.”
3 - Expectations
It’s fair to say we controlled the first leg - a 2-0 win - what does Jose expect in this away leg in Zagreb?
Jose: “Of course, no atmosphere, but that is the whole season, home or away, so that’s not a point. I believe in the first match, without playing wonderfully well, we were quite solid, we dominated the game, we had the game under control, we showed ambition in the second part of the second half to score more goals to kill it, but we didn’t. So, the reality is that it’s open, and by being open, we have to be very serious in our approach.”
First leg highlights...
4 - Balance
Keep a clean sheet, and we go through; score a goal, Dinamo Zagreb will need four - how will Jose approach this second leg?
Jose: “The best way to do it is to start the game thinking this is a game to win, forget the 2-0, it’s 0-0 and from 0-0 you want to win the game. If you arrive minute 75, minute 85 and you need to look at the aggregate score, then you do it. If you arrive with 10 minutes to go and it’s 0-0 or 1-1, you are not going to take risks to try to win the game because you have it in your hands. But, from the beginning of the game, I think it would be very dangerous to give that psychological edge to the opponent. We have to go there and try to win the game."
5 - Lucas
Jose was asked about Lucas Moura’s form in his pre-match press conference...
Jose: “With Lucas, there are no question marks about the things I consider the fundamentals of football, and that is you take your job in a very serious way, it doesn’t matter if you start the game, if you are on the bench, if you are in the stand, a professional from head to toe. He’s this kind of player. After that, he plays good, not so good, scores, doesn’t score, plays on the right, plays in the centre, plays striker, like he did last season. He’s a player I have utmost respect for, he’s a proper professional.”