"We are familiar with the characteristics of Athletic Bilbao. Here I hear that it is impossible to win. Nothing is impossible. If we follow our plan and if we know their weaknesses - the match is 90 minutes and we can congratulate ourselves on a win", said the coach of Ludogorets Igor Jovicevic before the match against Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League.
"They are one of the symbols of Spanish football. They have great qualities. We know the characteristics of Athletic. Everyone knows about their transition, but it's not just that. They are not a tiki-taka team. They strongly profess the philosophy of their coach. We know what kind of players the team has. They are a stable team - same coach, same style, almost the same players. Any simple mistake will be punished. We have a plan that we've been working on all week and we're going to do it this week," Jovicevic added.
"We are grateful that the fans will fill the stadium. They make us stronger and put positive energy into our players. Thanks for that. In Belgium our fans were there, we had a large following. They gave us strength, energy and we were a millimeter away from taking the point," he said.
Jovicevic recalled that he had a try against Athletic Bilbao as part of the Real Madrid B team and even scored a goal against that team. "I scored against Athletic Bilbao, check it - in 1992 or 1993."
"The priority is to finish with 11 people, then we will think about something else. All the missing players are important to our tactical build-up, but we will have to do without them. We also have a lot of injured people who we cannot use - Piotrowski, Nedyalkov, Tekpetey... we have to concentrate on the players who will play," Jovicevic concluded.
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