“Fredrikstad are very compact”
They’re very compact, so playing in a 3-5-2, defending in a 5-3-2, very often in a very deep block, very physical, so they scored in this season 50% of their goals from set plays, so very direct, but always not giving you a lot of space.
When we watched the Midtjylland games, with the first two shots Midtjylland were up by two goals so they were very, very efficient, and this will be the challenge.
We're expecting a very well organised, very physical Norwegian team that doesn't give you a lot of space and always tries to play forward quite directly, and having many crosses, because they have tall strikers, having many numbers in the box.
There are always the two strikers, the two eights arriving in the box, having many crosses, and this is what we have to defend so I have a lot of respect because they are the cup holders in Norway and they deserve it, and in the same way we deserve to play European football, Fredrikstad deserves this.
I was manager in Austria in Linz, and we also qualified for European football and had to play qualification. We played Besiktas Istanbul, who were six months before in the last 16 in the Champions League, and our approach was ‘okay, we are the underdog but you always have a chance to win’.
We lost 1-0 at Besiktas, and we were 2-0 up [at home] until the 92nd minute and then they had one finish, and at that time there was the away goal rule and we won 2-1, but Besiktas went through, and it was their only shot on target in the whole second game.
I think it's the same for Fredrikstad’s approach and when you play a knockout stage with two games you always believe that you have a chance to win. I think they will show their strengths, as I mentioned they scored 50% of the goals from set palys and it's not just corners and free kicks, there are four goals from long throws, so we are well prepared.
That means for us that we have to control their strengths and of course to use maybe their weaknesses and also our strengths, and this is how we approach it, but I'm pretty sure Fredrikstad, they won't enter the pitch waving the white flag tomorrow.
They will give their best and again deserve huge respect because they are the cup winners of Norway, good quality, good structured team, well organised again, not giving you a lot of space means for us finding the space, finding a good mixture between being patient but also attacking the box, bringing the ball into the areas where you can score, causing troubles and force them maybe to make mistakes.
This is how I see that the game will be tomorrow.
