Djibril Sidibé: "We will have to be ready for this battle"
The team need to get back to winning ways — beaten last week at Stade Louis-II (0-1) by Shakhtar Donetsk, AS Monaco will now have to win at Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv to be able to take a place in the group stage of the Champions League three years on. It was with this in mind that Djibril Sidibé spoke at a press conference, determined to earn qualification and remembering fondly the team’s win over Villarreal in 2016.
On the importance of this match
Yes, this is the most important match as our season starts, in terms of our ambitions. We did a good job last season to make our dreams come true. We are only one goal down. The objective will be to go to Ukraine with ambition and aggressiveness, to show our true sevles. We have nothing to lose. We will have to be ready for this battle.
On the lack of form to start off the season
I think the majority of the group are not used to playing every three days, but that’s no excuse. The start of the season does not correspond to the results we had hoped for, but we are aware that the situation needs to be corrected quickly. Tomorrow we will have to show great motivation from the start and raise our level.
𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑨𝒄𝒕 💥
🔜 #ShakhtarASM #RoadToChampions pic.twitter.com/fjYb45CNWA
— AS Monaco 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco) August 23, 2021
The necessary ingredients for success
The first thing needed will be intensity. To win this match, we will first have to be ready to win the duels and show our true colors to achieve qualification. In the first leg, we watched them too much at the start of the game even if it was much better afterwards. We need to score. We will need to be focused from start to finish and play hard so that we have no regrets.
The match against Lens
It’s a different competition compared to Ligue 1. It’s true that there was a lot of frustration after that match. But today we’ve turned the page. We looked at some of the situations, but we are now focused on Shakhtar. We will have to draw inspiration from the results obtained last season against the likes of Paris or Lyon in the Coupe de France.
