“We’ve analysed the game in Munich and put it behind us,” said head coach Sebastian Hoeneß at his pre-match press conference in the build-up to facing Juventus in the UEFA Champions League. “For us it was important to quickly shift our focus to look forward to this great challenge away to Juventus.”
The 42-year-old also believes the Italian outfit perform at a similar level to Bayern Munich: “They’re a team who hardly have any weaknesses.”
Juventus with two wins from two
Thiago Motta took over as Juve head coach in the summer, and he has his side playing in a much more proactive, dominant manner than is usual for Italian teams. It has paid dividends too, with Juventus having conceded just one goal to sit third in the Serie A table, while they have won both of their Champions League outings so far this season: 3-2 against Leipzig and 3-1 against PSV Eindhoven.
“We’re not overawed by that; we’re here to play our game and to be successful,” said Hoeneß. Juve have often faced teams who are happy to cede possession, but VfB present a rather different prospect. “We want to be proactive and play with the courage that is one of our characteristics,” continued Hoeneß. “If we do that then we’ll be able to put Juve under pressure.” The stage is set, then, for an intriguing encounter between two teams who like to have the ball and go on the front foot.
Plenty of squad options
Hoeneß called his players together in the centre circle at the start of the team’s final training session to give a short speech before getting down to work fine-tuning preparations for the encounter in Turin.
All of the players in VfB’s travelling party are fit and available to play, leaving injured quintet Dan-Axel Zagadou, Chris Führich, Leonidas Stergiou, Justin Diehl and Luca Raimund as the only squad members still on the sidelines.