Arne Slot surprised that Feyenoord gets favorite role in Warsaw: ‘Compare it with playing against Ajax or PSV’ | Foreign football

Arne Slot had felt it, he said. The war between Russia and Ukraine casts a shadow over the round of 16 of the Europa League. “Then you look at the training and you see those people from Ukraine and then you think whether they lost brothers, sisters, father or mother in the war,” said Slot.

An hour earlier, the Croatian coach Igor Jovicevic had also had his say in the stadium of Legia Warsaw. The trainer summarized it briefly and concisely. ,,The soldiers die and we play football”, said the coach. And he also indicated that relaxing on a football field is not an option for his players.

Lock understands that. The coach puts Sebastian Szymanski back in the front midfield, but the question is how long the Pole, who plays in the stadium of the club where he grew up and where he won the Polish title twice, can last. Slot was surprised that Jovicevic pressed the team from Rotterdam into the role of favourite.

After all, Shakhtar Donetsk won away at RB Leipzig in the Champions League, drew against Real Madrid and defeated Stade Rennais in the intermediate round. On the other hand, Shakhtar is missing three players due to a suspension and the club sold star player Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea in the winter break. “I don’t see us as favourites. And no, I’m not thinking of winning big because then we have a good starting position for the home game a few days before Ajax. Of course you hope so, but if we can get a result away from this we will be very satisfied. And we think of the opponent with much more respect than talking about winning big.”

Slot spoke briefly with his players about the war in which Ukraine ended up uninvited. ,,Because you never know how well informed all the players are”, says Slot. “But talking about it doesn’t feel right.”

The medical staff monitors the players closely that Feyenoord will play four more times before the international break with Shakhtar Donetsk, Volendam and Ajax twice in a short time. ,,You may want to make changes sooner and bring fresh players onto the field”, says Slot. “But first let’s see how we relate to Shakhtar. I have said before that I compare that match in terms of level with playing against PSV and Ajax. They have a lot of talented young players and the Italian coach De Zerbi used to sit here who now works at Brighton. She let them play good football and they continued to build on that. Let me put it this way: Analyzing Shakhtar was fun because it was a fun team to watch. They know exactly what they want on the ball and off the ball.”