Final group match against Ulsan HD: “We are warned” | OneFootball

Niko Kovac on the personnel:“Marcel Sabitzer has had a bit of trouble with his knee. He took a knock and therefore trained a bit less – today he participated in parts of team training again. We’ll have to see how things look for him tomorrow. The only one who won’t be there is Jamie Gittens. We left him in Fort Lauderdale because he’s sick.”

...the possible lineup for Wednesday’s match: “I’m a fan of rotating a bit from time to time, especially in these temperatures. But we all know we’ve got an important match ahead of us tomorrow. We’re not through yet. You have to take care of business first before thinking about the next game. We are warned, we’ve watched the opponent. We’ll definitely have to deliver a good performance tomorrow if we want to win the game. That’s why we’re not going to throw everything overboard or rotate the entire team. That’s not going to happen.”

...the opponents Ulsan HD: “Ulsan is a team that’s already 20 matchdays into their domestic league season and hasn’t picked up a single point here yet. We also all know that the South Koreans are a very proud people, and they’ll definitely want to show their best possible performance tomorrow, to go home with the necessary points or at least one point. That means for us: We’re expecting a very tough game tomorrow. Certainly not a high-speed match – the temperatures just won’t allow that. But they’re a team that – like in their last match against Fluminense – will sit deep, in a very compact block. Sometimes they have six players in the last line. They’ll try their luck on the counterattack. We’ll have to be extremely careful – something we failed to do in the previous match, especially in the opening minutes. We can’t afford small mistakes that might put us behind.”

...measures against the heat on site: “We’re trying to make the right decisions. We’ve got towels soaked in ice water. The guys also have to keep dipping their hands and arms into water. In the last match, we kept the substitutes in the locker room because it was just too hot. We’re also trying to adjust the air conditioning a bit – when it’s set too cold, it’s actually dangerous. I’ve said it before: it might not be the best team that wins, but the one that copes best with these conditions. The team that handles it best will probably win the tournament.”

...the potential opponents in the round of 16: “I’m not thinking about that. We can’t choose our opponents. We’re dependent on what the others do. We first have to make sure we beat our opponent tomorrow and qualify for the Round of 16. And where we go from there – that doesn’t matter. The teams waiting for us in the next round are all strong. So it really doesn’t matter to us.”