One game away from the final
Saturday, August 15, 2020
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In an interview to UEFA, Alan Patrick and Taison spoke about the upcoming Europa League semifinal
- How are you approaching this game? [Coach] Luís Castro said ahead of the Basel game that your backline is the foundation that allows you to play the way you do higher up the pitch. Do you expect things to be different against Inter?
Alan Patrick:
- Well, they play with a 3-5-2 formation, which is a bit different from the opponents we usually face. But of course, we shouldn’t give up on having lots of possession, which is a feature of our team. We must try and impose our game style. We know these are extremely capable opponents, and tough ones. But like I said, we must stick to our game and be ourselves. And of course, given the ideas we’ve got after analysing their side, we must try to exploit their weaknesses.
Taison:
- Look, a team who finishes second in the Italian league is one we must really keep an eye on. They have great players, including many internationals. So, these semi-finals are quite important for both teams, especially as this is a one-off match with no second leg. So I see this as a 50-50. We didn’t get this far by chance, we earned it. So it will be a great game, and we hope we can repeat the great performance we had against Basel. Of course we’ll respect Inter, but we won’t stop playing the way we do, with joy. We will do what we do, although we respect Inter.
- You are very close to winning the competition. Are you aiming to match Shakhtar’s most important international achievement, winning the UEFA Cup trophy?
Alan Patrick:
- Absolutely. That’s the objective we’re all pursuing. We have this chance now and we all have it in our minds. But we’ve been preparing ourselves for that, one step at a time. This is one further step to take, one more step, so we can think of officially sealing our place in the history of the club by winning this second European trophy.
Taison:
- Especially for those of us who have been in the club for so long. We’ve had this dream in our heads of getting to the final from the moment we played against [SL] Benfica. We’ve never changed that. Our focus has always been to get to the final. We knew that when we reached the quarter-finals or semi-finals we were going to face strong teams, but we’ve had this in our minds, even as we face Inter, of making it to the final. We want to go down in the history of the club, and to do that we must lift trophies such as the [UEFA] Europa League, which is important not only to the club but to us players. So we’ve set our minds to this objective all along. We are focusing here, like we did during training, so that on Monday we can put in a great performance and, God willing, make it to the final.
Alan Patrick:
- We can’t help thinking about it, right?
Taison:
- Yes, of course. We can’t help but think of the final. Not least because we are [confined] in a hotel, so our thoughts are always in the next stage. Against Basel we had our minds on the semis. Now we want to make it to the final, as we’re only one game away from it.
Alan Patrick:
- Well, they play with a 3-5-2 formation, which is a bit different from the opponents we usually face. But of course, we shouldn’t give up on having lots of possession, which is a feature of our team. We must try and impose our game style. We know these are extremely capable opponents, and tough ones. But like I said, we must stick to our game and be ourselves. And of course, given the ideas we’ve got after analysing their side, we must try to exploit their weaknesses.
Taison:
- Look, a team who finishes second in the Italian league is one we must really keep an eye on. They have great players, including many internationals. So, these semi-finals are quite important for both teams, especially as this is a one-off match with no second leg. So I see this as a 50-50. We didn’t get this far by chance, we earned it. So it will be a great game, and we hope we can repeat the great performance we had against Basel. Of course we’ll respect Inter, but we won’t stop playing the way we do, with joy. We will do what we do, although we respect Inter.
- You are very close to winning the competition. Are you aiming to match Shakhtar’s most important international achievement, winning the UEFA Cup trophy?
Alan Patrick:
- Absolutely. That’s the objective we’re all pursuing. We have this chance now and we all have it in our minds. But we’ve been preparing ourselves for that, one step at a time. This is one further step to take, one more step, so we can think of officially sealing our place in the history of the club by winning this second European trophy.
Taison:
- Especially for those of us who have been in the club for so long. We’ve had this dream in our heads of getting to the final from the moment we played against [SL] Benfica. We’ve never changed that. Our focus has always been to get to the final. We knew that when we reached the quarter-finals or semi-finals we were going to face strong teams, but we’ve had this in our minds, even as we face Inter, of making it to the final. We want to go down in the history of the club, and to do that we must lift trophies such as the [UEFA] Europa League, which is important not only to the club but to us players. So we’ve set our minds to this objective all along. We are focusing here, like we did during training, so that on Monday we can put in a great performance and, God willing, make it to the final.
Alan Patrick:
- We can’t help thinking about it, right?
Taison:
- Yes, of course. We can’t help but think of the final. Not least because we are [confined] in a hotel, so our thoughts are always in the next stage. Against Basel we had our minds on the semis. Now we want to make it to the final, as we’re only one game away from it.
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