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“Obviously it’s always good to know the opponent. We shouldn’t face any big surprises,” Alonso stated on Wednesday morning. “But it won’t be at all easy. So much is clear.” Speaking about the strengths of Qarabag, who are the first team from Azerbaijan to reach the last 16 of a European competition, the Spaniard said: “They have a lot of confidence, not least thanks to their big lead in their league [23 points above second place].” Andrich added: “Things are different from the group stage. They’ve got good players in attack, lots of lively players.”
While the Werkself bypassed the play-off round as group winners, Qarabag had to get past Braga of Portugal, prevailing 6-5 on aggregate after extra-time. “They played in their typical way in both games and were especially dangerous on the counter,” Alonso explained. The hosts are without the suspended duo of Julio Romao and Elvin Jafarguliyev for the first leg.
Looking at his own squad, Alonso has almost everybody available. Only Victor Boniface and Arthur, who returned to training with the team yesterday, are not able to play. Exequiel Palacios was described by the coach as being “top fit” and could start following his return from injury, but Alonso refused to state yet whether that would be the case. He did, though, confirm that Matej Kovar would be in goal for both legs against Qarabag, while Lukas Hradecky will play against Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Andrich also spoke about the battle for places in the squad: “Competition is always good for a team, also for the coach. Some players were and obviously are sometimes unhappy, but absolutely nobody with us has damaged the team in any way, but always given their all for the team. We have an incredible number of players at a very high level. That really helps us.”
A total of 420 fans are expected to accompany the Werkself to Azerbaijan – the club’s longest European away trip. Like they did in the group game in Baku, the team will again stick to a schedule based on German time, despite the two-hour time difference. “It worked well last time, so we’ll stick with it,” claimed Andrich, who also added that it’s a positive for the first leg to be away and the return fixture at the BayArena. “Our focus is now solely on the first leg tomorrow. That’s how we’ve handled things all season. We want to get into a good position for the second leg, so we need to do our job and play our way.”
The team will leave for Baku at 2pm on Wednesday afternoon.
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