French Marseille head coach Gennaro Gattuso told what he expects from his team's first match against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Europa League play-off for the right to reach the 1/8 finals of the tournament, which will take place today in Hamburg.
"We know that we will face a very young, but very strong, very technical team. As far as our team is concerned, even if we can say that we are going through bad times, it doesn't mean that we are dead, that we are no longer alive. There have been some trust issues, but we are successfully working on that. We should be proud of our team, of what we do. This is the way out of the current situation.
During the winter break, Shakhtar played 7-8 friendlies. We have seen these games, as well as the team's official matches this season in the Champions League and the Ukrainian league. I repeat, they are a strong team, they work well. They are young, they have a lot of energy. We will have to be extremely determined to take control of the ball and show our strengths in the match against Shakhtar," Gattuso said at the pre-match press conference.