He came out of breath, he had to clear his throat before answering the journalist’s questions for the first time. Recent health problems have affected the health of coach Slovan Vladimír Weiss. But he will be on the bench on Wednesday night, ready to lead the Whites in their Champions League campaign against Celtic.
Photo: ČTK / imago sportfotodienst / IMAGO
After 19 years, coach Vladimír Weiss can lead the Slovak club to points again in the main phase of the Champions League.
How is the health of the staff? All the footballers traveled to Glasgow. How is your health after a week’s absence and how do you feel?
The players are all healthy and I, sitting here, have already improved as well. We are all ready for the match.
You have fond memories of Celtic, the year 2005 and the progress of Artmedia Petržalka. Have you often had these successful moments pop into your head these past few days?
It can be said that it was a long time ago – but no one can erase your memories. Today it is Celtic who play very fast and play different football than they played 19 years ago.
Brendan brought a different vision of football here. They play good football, fast football, but we also know that and we will fight as long as we have enough strength. We know what awaits us here – Robo (Mak), Vlado (Weiss) played here, Kevin Wimmer also played here.
The players know about the atmosphere. Even the biggest football stars have said that the atmosphere here is the best in the world. I agree with that and I think that we have such an experienced team that it will not succumb to it.
We can’t make cheap mistakes under pressure, and we will be under pressure because people will make them do it. Just as people give us emotion at home, they give it to the home team at Celtic Park. You have to be dangerous, confident, but very disciplined to play here.
What does atmosphere mean to the coach in terms of giving instructions? Do you even shout to the first nearest player?
I barely got up the stairs today, do you want me to yell at the players in this atmosphere? But I’m just kidding… You can’t shout here, you don’t have a chance.
You can gesture, give instructions that the players are used to, you can show something with body language. You can scream as much as you want…
It is the first match of Slovan in history in the main stage of the Champions League. You got Petržalka there, now Slovan. How do you feel after all this?
I take it a little differently. When I joined Slovan, I took it as a sense of responsibility to prove something. Thank God we managed to do that, perhaps sooner than I had planned.
No one knows how long a person will stay here and how long he will be a coach. After 3.5 years to reach the Champions League after working with this team, I am proud of him, the players and the spectators.
Slovan changed, we brought joy to the people and they returned to the stadium. That is the biggest motto of our joint work, the players deserved the promotion. I told them in preparation that we didn’t come to Celtic for a trip.
It’s a different Champions League group, a different model and just one game. We will try to steal a point from the home team, maybe surprise them, everything is possible in football. More than once, we have seen what is possible with inattention in the league.
We will give it our all, the players and I are looking forward to the match, hundreds of thousands of people will cheer for us at home. We will want to show them pride, fighting spirit. We’ll see what we have tomorrow, it’s the Champions League, they’re the best teams in the world, they’re practically the Club World Cup and we have to look forward to that.
Slovan’s lineup and game system have been stabilized. However, you are known for being able to surprise. Will it happen on Wednesday night as well?
As I always said, I decide after the last training session. I have a set-up in my head, I have one or two question marks and I will decide after training how the players will look after smaller games and work with the ball.
The line-up is 90 to 95 percent certain and I believe that the players who have quality and will give everything will come out.
Celtic coach Brendan Rodgers does not force an insular style of play. What are the biggest pluses of the Scottish team and how difficult was it to prepare for it?
We were mainly based on their game with Glasgow Rangers, where they dominated – it’s a game to the death. We see a lot of their quality going forward in terms of sprints, balls behind the defender, back passes, we are ready for that – but when the opponent has quality and they show it at speed, they just do it.
We know where we can surprise them and when we can, we can break down their good defence. If we prevail in one-on-one fights, we have a chance.
How important was it to finish the match in Dunajská Streda and win after the drama that took place at the end and get in the mood for entering the Champions League?
Very important three points, I praised the players for their approach, my implementation team also worked very well. Three points from Dunajská Streda was not an easy thing, it was an emotional match and as we won, it could have ended differently.
The strength of the team was shown, as we turned the game around. If you win a tough away league game and then go to Celtic, that gives you determination. But tomorrow everyone has to prepare in their heads.
We told the players everything we saw and analyzed. We’ll see if their quality shows up as we saw it on the video, because the video sometimes distorts a lot.
On Sunday, you have a life anniversary, you celebrate your 60th birthday. Want an early gift from the players?
We’ll see, I’m not 60 yet, we also have a match with Ružomberok before that, so we’ll see. I can’t stand it at all. The important thing is that we enjoy football tomorrow and feel good about the fact that we showed something here.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
