FC Rosengård cruised last week against the Austrian team St. Pölten in the first round of 16 in the Champions League. Rosengård was down 2-0 after 46 minutes of play, but then caught up to 2-2 after a late equalizer by Caroline Seger in overtime.
Now coach Jonas Eidevall says that he is looking forward to Wednesday’s return match and that the Skåne team will bring a lot of good stuff from the first meeting on Swedish soil.
– We showed morale and courage when we were down 2-0. We must definitely take with us that we were so task-oriented and that we believed so hard in what we did, as it is not something that is easy. I also think we should take with us the feeling we created in the second half, when we constantly attacked them throughout that half without sacrificing finding a bad balance to be able to defend against their counterattacks, he says to Fotbollskanalen.
Given that you ended up at a disadvantage. Are they better than you first thought?
– No, I would not say that. The match picture in general reflected what we could expect and we were severely punished for the few mistakes we made and we got a slightly worse dividend on our goal chances than we can be happy with. Other parts of the game we are happy with and it reflected what we thought before the match as well.
Eidevall believes that there is now good courage in the squad after the team last caught up.
– We go down here with the ambition to win the match. We know it will be tough, but we have good self-confidence and a good confidence in our own ability to arrange it.
The coach also sees several crucial factors that will be important for Rosengård to be able to make a good result in Austria.
– I think that, from a mental perspective, it will be important to start over and understand that this is a new match. It starts again and will not start, where the previous match ended. We have had a week to work with details, but they have also had a week to work with details, says the coach.
He continues:
– St. Pölten is a very hard working team and they will go out and be during the match start this time as well. We must be humble and understand that. Then I think it is very important that we take with us from the last match that we should set our positioning, so that we can be offensive right from the start without losing the ball in stupid situations, which gives St. Pölten opportunity to counter. It’s a lot about what balance we have behind the ball when we choose to hit the decisive passes.
Are you optimistic about advancement?
– Absolutely. I believe very hard in this team. I think it is a fantastic group, which we have to work with this year and I look at training how good we are when we put things in place. I am very optimistic before the match.
How do you see this team in comparison with previous editions you had in Rosengård?
– I think it is difficult to compare, but what I can say about this version of FC Rosengård is that it is a group that works very, very hard together and they have an environment and a climate, where they constantly learn and evolving. I think these are important factors in building a winning team.
Is it time for Rosengård to go far this year?
– The next step on the journey is tomorrow (read today) and that is where our focus must be. I am optimistic, but we need to be one hundred percent focused and that includes that we do not need to think beyond that.
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