Ralf Rangnick
Ralf Rangnick is asking his FC Schalke 04 players to show they have learned the lessons from a one-sided first-leg defeat when they visit Manchester United FC for the conclusion of their UEFA Champions League semi-final.
United counterpart, Sir Alex Ferguson, meanwhile, has a selection quandary.
Sir Alex Ferguson, United manager
"I hope Manchester United don't regard it as a formality, I certainly won't. The work ethic will be very high tomorrow in order for us to qualify.
If you look at the experience of last year where we lost the league [with a vital home defeat by Chelsea] it was after a Wednesday game against Bayern [a 2-1 quarter-final first-leg defeat in Munich]. The team was very tired against Chelsea in the next game so that has to have a bearing on my team selection – [they are] two massive games but each as important as the other. There will be some changes; hopefully I will have a nucleus of a team that is good enough to still win.
There seem to be better concentration levels in European games. It is not the regular football – the Premier League is incessant, tribalism almost. You are playing a London team, a Yorkshire team, Liverpool teams and it creates that incredible competitive edge. You go to Europe and there are different ways of playing, different tactics so it possibly brings different concentration from us."
Ralf Rangnick, Schalke coach
"We want to show we can play better, that we learned our lesson from last week and then we'll see what happens. If Sir Alex Ferguson does spare players it shows he has belief in his squad. And If we have a chance it is up to us to perform in contrast to the first leg. We need to take a different approach, learn from that and apply the lessons tomorrow.
The first ten to 15 minutes, Manchester United will try to score. I think we have to be well organised during this period and then we have to take our chances when we get them, even if there are just two minutes left. You only have to think of Man United in the Champions League final [against Bayern] when they came back to win 2-1.
The first leg we competed for the first 15 minutes then we gave away too many clear chances. We are looking to change that. When we played in Milan against Inter they didn't give us much hope either. Part of the hope comes from the development the team has shown over recent weeks – I hope they can show what they can do tomorrow.
Ideally we're looking at playing [Sergio Escudero] at left-back, he does have strong attacking qualities and is a possibility for tomorrow but we will have to see what happens in training."
The team news for Manchester United is that Wayne Rooney missed training on Tuesday along with Fabio; the England forward has a tight hamstring and will be assessed on Wednesday. Ryan Giggs missed Sunday's Arsenal FC loss with "a bit of flu" but should be fit, while Dimitar Berbatov and Anders Lindegaard are back in the squad after lay-offs. Darren Fletcher is available after a virus and will be involved, according to Sir Alex.
For Schalke Benedikt Höwedes has missed Schalke's last three games with a stomach strain and is due to have a late fitness test along with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (knee).
"We will not take unnecessary risks," said Rangnick. "He has to be 100% fit." Mario Gavranović (ankle), Christoph Moritz (knee) and Christian Pander (toe, cold) are all out.
At the weekend United suffered a defeat which means they will drop to second if they lose at home to Chelsea next Sunday – they started March 15 points ahead of the Blues. Sir Alex made two changes to the side that won at Schalke, Antonio Valencia and Giggs making way for Nani and Anderson.
Schalke have won only three of their last ten away matches.
The good news for Schalke is that Raúl González scored four UEFA Champions League goals in three games against United for Real Madrid CF. He appeared in both matches of Madrid's quarter-final win in 1999/2000, striking twice in the 3-2 second-leg success in Manchester that secured an identical aggregate victory.
Raúl hit two more when Madrid beat United 3-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu in a quarter-final first leg in 2002/03.
No comments:
Post a Comment