Ancelotti: "We'll have to battle and fight if we're to beat Eintracht | OneFootball

Carlo Ancelotti addressed the media in the pre-match press conference held at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium ahead of the final training session prior to the UEFA Super Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt (Wednesday, 9pm). The coach previewed the game in the following terms: “I watched the Eintracht game against Bayern and we won’t be fooled by that. They deserved to win the Europa League because they beat some very strong sides. They’re a lively side who play high-intensity football.”

“We know all about them and if we’re to beat them we're going to have to fight, battle and play well. We're in good shape to do just that because we’ve trained well and are feeling realling confident. Winning the Champions League has brought real excitement and that remains intact for us and our supporters. We want to keep the momentum going.”

Same starting XI as Champions League final? “We're here thanks to the job done by those who won the Champions League. We didn't just win it with 11 players. Many of the players deserve to play, but I'm going to put out the side that won the Champions League final, with the old question mark about two or three of them (smiles). I think that the two who are sitting here next to me (Modrić and Benzema) will play, if they want to, that is.”

Six trophies up for grabs this term “We're going to be fighting to win all of the competitions, I've got no doubt about that. Winning the six competitions is a little more difficult. It’ll be possible to fight for them and give it a go and that's what we'll be doing. I've got great confidence in my squad, which in my opinion is stronger than last season’s. We're going to compete and fight hard.”

“Winning is always special. I always feel happy when we win and sad if we lose. Statistics are not important to me. The important thing is for me to enjoy being with my players.” Last season’s trophy triumphs “Last season was the best of my career. I had never managed to win LaLiga and the Champions League. My players were the ones who achieved it with a great combination of spirit, attitude, quality, experience and youthful enthusiasm, etc. It was thanks to all of that that we achieved something really significant by beating some strong sides in the Champions League.”

Reinforcements “We brought in two players who have improved the squad both physically and technically. We've also got another year to train and improve the chemistry between the more senior players and the youngsters, which was one of the key aspects last time round. What's more, we now know each other better. Rüdiger and Tchouaméni have improved the squad in technical and physical terms.”

Options to cover Benzema  “We’ve got a number of strikers and a good list of them: Benzema, Mariano, Hazard, Rodrygo, Asensio, Vini Jr... I hope not to have missed anyone out. When you're without the best striker in the world it affects the team, but we have got some other options. It's difficult to replace Karim. There's no player in the world who’s capable of replacing him. If Benzema catches a cold, we’ll adapt to the situation.”

Bayern’s dominance in the Bundesliga "It's tough for any team to compete with Bayern because they've got a bigger budget, most illustrious past and a better set-up than the rest of the teams in Germany. What's more, a team’s budget is one of the key factors to achieving success. We have seen that in Germany and Italy, where Juventus won the league for many years. it's very difficult to redress the balance.”

Finland “It's my first visit here and it's really beautiful. I really enjoyed Canada and there are quite a few parallels. The Finland national team achieved some good results last year and this is a historic stadium, which played host to the Olympic Games. We've got a lot of fans here and the stadium will be painted white by both sets of supporters and it'll almost look like the whole stadium is backing Real Madrid.”