Lucien Favre was beaming as he took his place on the podium on Monday lunchtime. The head coach is looking ahead to the Champions League showdown with Inter Milan on Tuesday evening (21:00 CET) with excitement and optimism.

"It's always good when we win," said Favre at the international press conference, in reference to the recent home victories against Gladbach and Wolfsburg in the cup and league respectively. "We had a few nice passages of play, especially in the second half. We linked up very well and did so with enthusiasm." Julian Brandt, who was sitting next to the coach, added: "That natural flow is something we need to work for. I'm sure that it'll come back in time and that we'll be able to play like that throughout a match and not only in the second half. We have the quality."

Inter Milan, who currently occupy second place in Serie A and boast an excellent record of nine wins, one draw and one defeat to date, will be the next test for the Black & Yellows, who will have home advantage but were beaten 2-0 in the reverse fixture in Italy. To ensure they come out on top in a potential "head-to-head" battle with the Italian outfit, Favre's charges must win by three goals tomorrow. But just getting the three points on the board would represent a major step towards qualification. "Everyone can see the table," said Brandt, who believes that Inter have "a slight advantage". The attacking midfielder continued: "We want to win the game definitively, but we can't go into it blindly; instead, we'll need to play intelligently and be prepared to face a good opponent."

"We have a speed advantage"

Favre reacted to those words with a smile. It appears as though his players have internalised what they need to do to win. "Inter are difficult to play against. We'll need to go forward with caution, with the right balance," emphasised the coach, who will be focusing a key part of his pre-match preparations on shoring up the defence in attacking phases. The physical strength of the opposition is a challenge too. "We need to play with few touches of the ball, show good movement and move the ball about," explained Julian Brandt, who already appears to be thinking like his/a coach. "We need to focus on our strengths," he added. "We have a speed advantage; we have players who are agile and possess tremendous pace. We respect Inter, but we're playing at home and we've already beaten very different teams."

A decision as to whether Marco Reus, who missed the reverse fixture with an infection, is fit enough to feature will not be made until after training this evening at the earliest or maybe even on Tuesday. "It's nothing terrible," said sporting director Michael Zorc of the results of an MRI scan which was conducted on Sunday. Reus was on the wrong end of a heavy challenge from Wolfsburg's Roussillon and took a knock to his foot and his ankle in the process.

Having been rested in midweek, the trio of Jadon Sancho, Axel Witsel and Thomas Delaney are expected back in the starting XI, as is shot-stopper Roman Bürki. Lukasz Piszczek, who was singled out for praise and commended for his "superb mentality" by Favre, could drop to the bench (after playing three lots of 90 minutes in the last week) in order to avoid picking up any (further) muscular injuries. Favre rotated in six and five positions respectively prior to the Gladbach and Wolfsburg games.
Boris Rupert