Roger Schmidt will play with PSV in the third qualifying round of the Champions League against FC Midtjylland on Tuesday. The coach named the biggest danger of the Danish top club at the press conference on Monday: physical play and standard situations. “We pay a lot of attention to that,” said the PSV trainer.
Schmidt hopes that his team can continue the good game of the diptych with Galatasaray. “Galatasaray was a very good opponent with a lot of individual qualities, but we showed that we can make the difference,” said the German. “We played two very good games, especially at home, which made it easy for the away game. Tomorrow we will also try to exploit our home advantage. We have to be ready for a more physical way of playing and also for standard situations. We have a lot of eye for that. I expect two very difficult matches.”
Midtjylland is struggling with a corona outbreak and has to miss Nicolas Madsen, Henrik Dalsgaard and Pione Sisto against PSV. “We had it a lot last year,” Schmidt said. “But to be honest I’m not that interested in the opponent because we have to focus on ourselves. They will find a solution and put a good team on the field. We should not think too much about their problems. We focus on our own. We are in good spirits and we have a clear plan, which we want to implement tomorrow with the fans in the stadium.”
Schmidt was asked about what to expect from Midtjylland. “They have a mix of nationalities. Danish players, of course, but also a lot of Brazilians. Maybe five players from the base are from Brazil. The last games they played a little differently with three in the back, but we’ll see how they compare to us. If we get to our level I think we have a good chance of winning Whether we are favorites That’s always something for the media It doesn’t matter to me that’s your decision I want to continue on this matches, and that is certainly not easy.”
PSV has to miss Olivier Boscagli due to a suspension. “Olivier is a very important player, he played almost everything last season and this year,” said Schmidt. “But we have very good replacements with Nick Viergever and Armando Obispo. They show themselves very well in training, they both deserve to play, to be honest. It is a very difficult decision for me. We miss Olivier, but we also have good substitutes.” PSV also has two absentees. “Ryan Thomas has some ankle problems, but nothing serious. We hope he can join us on Saturday (for the Johan Cruijff Scale against Ajax, ed.). We expect Maximiliano Romero back at the end of September.”