DON’T BET ON COPENHAGEN
COPENHAGEN coach Stale Solbakken has written off his side’s chances tonight by saying: “You shouldn’t put your house on us!”
Solbakken was in charge of Copenhagen in 2006 when his side famously beat Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United 1-0 in the group stage of the Champions League.
But Solbakken, 52, admitted his side will need to play a “perfect” game in Cologne tonight if they are to upset the tournament favourites – and warned fans against backing his underdogs.
“In order to do that we have to play perfect,” said Solbakken. “We need a bit of luck and we need United not to fire on all cylinders.
“We need to be perfect defensively, we need those one, two or three chances we get during a game like this.
“So the chances are not great but it’s an advantage for us that it’s over 90 minutes and not 180 minutes.
“We have a good feeling, after managing to get a week’s break after the season ended and we’ve managed to get a couple of players ready to play, who have been vital to us before.
“So we have a good feeling after our 3-0 victory in the last round but you shouldn’t put your house on us tomorrow! But we will give everything.
“After the coronavirus break, United are looking more of an attacking threat, based on what you’re used to seeing from United teams of the past, if you go all the way back to the early days of Ferguson right through to the late days of Ferguson.
“Obviously Ole Gunnar’s main mentor as a manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and I can see he’s building what you would call a more attractive way of playing or whatever you like call it.
“He has more weapons in the last third of the pitch and they are still a great counter-attacking team.
“But they’re starting to open up low defences now, with the signing of Bruno Fernandes, with the cutting inside from the right of Mason Greenwood and obviously the speed of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.
“So it’s going very much in the right direction and after the coronavirus break they have been very good.”
Asked if United playmaker Fernandes is the biggest threat to shut down, Solbakken said: “You can’t give one player too much attention when you have four or five other match-winners out there, so we have to defend as a team.”