Tuchel on the return of Neymar against Dortmund: "It changes everything"

Words gathered at a press conference.

Neymar : “Ney is here, he's fine. He will train with us and he will play if nothing happens in training. What does it change if he plays? It changes almost everything! I hope in the positive sense. All ? It's easy it changes everything because he has the confidence, the quality and the ability to do decisive things. It changes everything for us, for teammates, Kylian, for us. It gives a lot of confidence to me and to the whole team. If he's not there, we don't have another player with the same quality. ”

His visit to Dortmund (2015-2017) : “I spent two exciting years here. Since then, I have never returned to the stadium. I see a lot of famous faces. It's a good feeling. I am grateful to have coached this club for two years, and also grateful to coach a club that plays in C1 against Dortmund. If I did not coach one of the two teams, I would watch this match on TV. It was a dream to train here. It is a great challenge to come back here with another team. But it's not about me. We want to play beautiful football. My personal situation is not important. ”

"You have to stay calm, attentive and intelligent"

Important emotional control according to Guardiola : “If he says it, he is right. He has won the C1 several times. It's hard to control emotions, and even more so here. It's almost impossible to do it for 90 minutes. We have to play intelligently, while not being too emotional. If that starts to be the case, we have to adapt and fight. It is a game of a very high level, a very emotional stadium, with great supporters. You have to stay calm, attentive and intelligent. ”

Group confidence : “Without confidence, we cannot play this game. We must arrive with confidence. It's necessary. Otherwise, we cannot survive in this stadium against this adversary, this atmosphere. We have been regular for a long time. We attack and defend together, the team can adapt to several types of situations. This is the key to being attentive enough and adapting to anything that can happen. Dortmund has quality, it's very strong in transition, a lot of speed and quality. The stats of offensive players are huge. So you have to be smart and avoid blocking before they happen. That's the big challenge. "

"The yellow wall? You really have to feel it yourself to understand ”

The yellow wall : “You really have to feel it yourself to understand. I remember the first home game when I coached Borussia, I was amazed for 10 minutes. It was growing on all sides! So I'm not going to talk too much about it to the players. They have to live it themselves. What I can say will not be fair ... But we have players who are used to playing in this kind of stadium, who love to play decisive matches like that. I think it brings out the best in my players. It's up to them to prove it. ”

The background : “There is a special atmosphere before a match like this, but you shouldn't overdo it. We must be prepared beforehand, but weeks, months before. We are not mentally preparing for a match like this in the last days. I have a feeling that the team has shown for many weeks that it is ready. Now is the time to show it. ”

Pablo Sarabia : “I would not tell you whether he started or not ( smile ). But Pablo, his best position, is close to the surface to always have the possibility of making aggressive races in the surface and having the last touch. He is very strong in the last direct touch, strong in the finish and in the assist. For that, I really like if he plays close to the surface. That of the opponent ( laughs )! ”

"After Manchester United, we were mentally dead"

The primary psychological aspect : “It is never only sporty. In all sports it is the same. I told the players, right after the loss to Manchester United, that I hoped we would still be faced with the same situation. It's sport. We can know terrible defeats, bizarre as against MU. Afterwards, we were sad. Mentally dead. But in the end, it is sport, no more no less. You have to accept and come back. It's necessary. Come back with a smile, joy. It's competition. And we are still there. Maybe it will be a little harder this year. But then, we don't want to play C1? We did an excellent group phase. It is a great challenge. Can we check the result? No. We can control our preparation. It is a situation to profit. But we will fight, try to take up this challenge. And in the end, accept this result. "

Trauma at the club, among the players, after three eliminations in 8th : “I don't know. If you lose three times in 8th, you arrive a 4th, the situation is no longer the same. But each year has its history. Maybe we have to accept that it's like that. It's sport. We don't do more. There are doctors, other professions more important than ours. In sport, it happens to lose. We don't like it, we want to avoid it, but we have to accept, use defeats to grow and progress. We arrive in the same situation, but the first leg was not the problem last year ( smile ). We will talk about it again before the second match ... How to solve this? We have to win. We have to qualify. Then we may be able to breathe, it will be easier. But in the meantime, it's important to take advantage. It's soccer. And the best thing is to be here. "

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