Although hot weather is expected on Thursday at the Velodrome Stadium in the second leg of the Europa League quarter-finals, Benfica coach Roger Schmidt believes that his team is fully capable of resisting these pressures.
The atmosphere seems crazy. What's more is that Jean-Louis Gasset's men managed to ignite the audience from the first minutes. After dominating 2-1 in the first leg in Lisbon, Marseille can still dream of qualifying for the semi-finals of the Europa League.
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For this quarter-final comeback, Velodrome's support could be crucial. If 3,500 Portuguese fans are expected in the stands on Thursday evening (9pm), they will find it difficult to express themselves in the Marseille cauldron, which will clearly be sold out with 65,000 people expected to attend.
Striker David Neres admitted on Wednesday in a press conference: “Do we consider ourselves favorites at all?” He said, “Marseille has a great team and will be stronger with the support of its fans. It will be a balanced match. I really believe that we are capable of qualifying. We won the first leg and we can do that here.” He confirmed.
For Schmidt, Benfica must be 'brave'
Roger Schmidt, the German technician for Benfica, insisted on the experience of his team, which was accustomed to playing in hot climates on the European stage: “Anything is possible. We will have to show our qualities in terms of possession. They will be able to rely on.” We will have to be brave and find solutions. We will be under pressure at times, we have the quality to be good in transition. Our goal is to achieve balance and score. We will face an excellent opponent when we play in such a context. The goal tomorrow is to be brave.”
He added: “It is of course an advantage to play at home. But it will not be new for us. We have already played in Toulouse, Glasgow, Milan, San Sebastian… We have played a lot of matches away from there. It will be a big atmosphere, and there will be noise, but I think we can focus on The match, we will have to show that we are capable of playing in this type of atmosphere by remaining calm and courageous. When you play the second leg away from home, you have to be at the mental level to be able to qualify.
The last French representative in the Europa League, Marseille will face Liverpool or Atalanta Bergamo if they qualify for the semi-finals. In the first leg, the Italians succeeded in defeating the Reds at Anfield (3-0).
