PSV can again have Mohamed Ihattaren in the return match against Olympiacos. The attacking midfielder was missing last Thursday against the Greeks and Sunday against Vitesse with an unknown illness, but according to trainer Roger Schmidt is now back in full training. Behind the name of Olivier Boscagli, who is recovering from a head wound, is another question mark. A final judgment will be made on his employability after the last training session on Wednesday afternoon.
The team from Eindhoven has to clean up a 4-2 deficit in the sixteenth final of the Europa League and Mario Götze shows full confidence. “I remember losing to FC Porto 3-1 and winning 5-1 at home. Away matches in the knockout stages of Europe are always difficult, but we should not forget that we are very strong in-house with PSV this season. We have only lost twice and we know what to do better against Olympiacos. ”
The midfielder also gets hope from the match against Vitesse (3-1 win). Although he only played for 26 minutes as a substitute, he managed to score twice. “I feel good now and I notice that I am getting stronger. I think I can play the full ninety minutes on Thursday, but that also depends on the coach ”, said Götze, who has been praised by his trainer. “Our substitutes made the difference on Sunday, so it’s nice that he is back.”
Schmidt does not want to say anything about his line-up, but does indicate that he may have to move due to the absence of the suspended Ibrahim Sangaré. “There is no one-on-one replacement for him, because he has a unique playing style. Unfortunately it has to be done without him and perhaps without Boscagli. Olivier trained individually yesterday, so we have to wait and see how it goes today (Wednesday, ed.) At the training. Only then do we make a final decision. ” For Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke, the game comes too early anyway.
The coach has urged his players that they can do something special by cleaning up the backlog in Greece. “We have also shown resilience against PAOK and it is an advantage that we play at home. Of course it is a difficult situation, but we have faith in ourselves. The key is that we learn from last week, when simple mistakes killed us. Then they were very effective with their opportunities and now it is up to us to enforce and exploit opportunities. ”