“Expecting a high-intensity game of football” | OneFootball

Ahead of the trip to Mainz, Dino Toppmöller talks about team news, the importance of the match and the end of the season.

Eintracht close Matchday 32 of the Bundesliga on Sunday evening with the away game at 1. FSV Mainz 05. Kick-off at the MEWA ARENA is at 19:30 CEST. At his pre-match press conference, head coach Dino Toppmöller discussed… … his expectations for the game: “I'm expecting a high-intensity game of football. We're prepared for crunching tackles from the start. Intensity and second balls will be big factors. Mainz work very hard to pick up second balls – they’re probably the best in the Bundesliga at that. We need a lot of intensity, have to win a lot of second balls and in doing so dictate the tempo of the match.”

… the team news: “Rasmus Kristensen has been able to train normally all week and is in contention to start. Igor Matanovic has been in full training since Thursday. Mario Götze and Kauã Santos remain sidelined.”

… the importance of the match: “I already stressed to the team before Leipzig that it wasn’t a final, but a normal Bundesliga game. Of course, we always know the significance of each match, and on Sunday we have a very big chance to take the decisive step [to Champions League qualification]. However, we don’t need to do anything special or turn to any psychological tricks. We have the motivation to perform well in every game – irrespective of the opponents.”

… Eintracht’s strong finish to the season: “We’ve been very consistent across the whole season. There have been these little periods in which we’ve not won for one or two games, but we’ve always found an answer. The way you handle that is important. We’ve handled success well and kept our feet on the ground, but we’ve also stayed calm when we’ve messed up the odd game.”