On his preference to train in South London…
It actually started during the Europa League season that we didn't train in the away stadiums, because you don't have much time to train anyway, and as a rule we still train in standard situations the day before the game.
But, of course, you can't do that in the opposing stadium, so we said, let's do the final training at home, where we can pull up the curtains. And that was actually from the beginning, and we went through with that until the final, and we always kept it that way in the competition.
It would have been possible to train here, but then we said ‘no, we're familiar with this rhythm, it fits us well, we're in the right environment, and we'll fly later’.
[On keeping to that routine] No, I don't think that's the only reason why we can win tomorrow!
On final preparations tomorrow…
Tomorrow's day is longer than the FA Cup Final day, because the final was at 4.30pm and tomorrow starts at 9pm local time.
We’re quite relaxed. For me, it's everything we haven't done right now, everything we couldn't transport right now, we can't do tomorrow regarding the tactics we have.
We had a meeting today, we had already meetings last week, which we usually don't do when we play a league game, but we started showing the players Vallecano last week, so we really watched many, many games from La Liga, from the Conference League, when they played the back three, when they played against the back three, when they played against the back four, when they had more possession, less possession, so we really had to be prepared. This is what we showed the players.
Today, depending on the questions, we will go to dinner! And then I don't know what the players are doing, so they are all adults, and then they can spend the evening. I hope nobody goes into a bar, but I'm pretty sure they won’t!
And then also tomorrow we can sleep quite long. It was a very long day, and having an activation, we always play head tennis, and this is one of the... To be honest, because everybody is a little bit excited, and me as well, and it's a long day, and then these 30 minutes when the players play head tennis is one of the best moments for me, because I see kids playing football, they have so much fun, everybody wants to win, but they are laughing and joking, and I'm sitting there just watching and having a big smile, and they always get a good feeling how the group is, how the players are.
I hope they are also laughing tomorrow and joking, and are not calm and introverted because they are nervous, because I think they should be how they are, they should be who they are, and then we have the best chance to show a great performance, and this is what we want to be.
Of course we will have a meeting, the players will hear the starting line-up, a small summary, and then it always feels like just eating, resting, eating, resting, eating, resting, – and then we go into the stadium…
2026 UEFA Conference League Final
Crystal Palace v Rayo Vallecano
