He says: “Bijlow is doing well. He has trained with the group for over a week, which is going great. The special thing, and also the clever thing, if nothing more happens, we have all players available. If Justin stays fit, it is likely that he will play.”
Slot continues: „It is very nice that you have Bijlow with you, but Ofir (Marciano, red) has also completed well in recent matches. I do not want to sit in the chair of the national coach, but he may well be the first goalkeeper of Orange. So it’s really nice to have him there.’
About the competition: „We have to do what we have been doing all year. That’s closest to the players. But AS Roma will of course try to prevent that. You have to take into account the qualities of the opponent. So you might make some minor adjustments.”
Slot: ,,We have watched many matches of AS Roma. They have a great tradition and it is a great club in Italy. They have very good players, very creative players up front. And they can defend well. We have seen a structured team. We think we know what to expect, but sometimes the coach has a trick for his playing plan. But we hope to be well prepared. But we’ve played 55 games this season, it would be special if Mourinho came up with something we haven’t seen before.”
Feyenoord coach Arne Slot.
AP
Toornstra taps himself on the fingers
Jens Toornstra knows very well that as captain he will be the one who may hold up the Conference League trophy if he wins over AS Roma in the final. “I thought about that for a while, but I reprimanded myself.”
Yet he is not in suspense, he said at the press conference: „For us there is a while between the game, but I think we have been able to work and train well in Portugal. The trip was fine, so far the countdown is going well. That we’re here for a final, that’s great, that’s fun. Let’s hope we can hold onto the good feeling for another thirty hours.”
To continue: „We have to show it on the field. I hope we can make it a big party after that. But the match has yet to begin. I hope it will be fun and I hope we can win the game.” Then he has to play, of course: „It does not frustrate me that I may not play tomorrow. The team that plays a lot is doing really well. This can happen in football. But I really enjoy being here. That feeling really disappears if we win tomorrow.”
Trauner
Gernot Trauner is also looking forward to the final. “I did not expect that we would reach the final. We have played well all season, from the group stage. We are here for a reason, now we want to win that final. That will be difficult, we realize that.”
And: „We have shown this season that we can beat strong opponents. We now meet AS Roma with a well-known coach, they do not concede many goals. But AS Roma also has weaknesses, we try to take advantage of that. We also have the ability to score. It will be a special match.”
Fourth European Grand Prize
Feyenoord can win the fourth European prize in Tirana on Wednesday. The club defeated Celtic in the European Cup 1 final in 1970 and won the UEFA Cup in 1974 and 2002. AS Roma did not win any of the two previous European finals.
Both clubs met once before in Europe. The Italians eliminated the Rotterdam team in 2015 in the sixteenth finals of the Europa League, after a draw in Italy (1-1) and a win in De Kuip (1-2). AS Roma defeated Vitesse in the eighth finals of the Conference League this season.