Paulo: The pressure will not be on us on Thursday evening

Paulo Sousa faced the media on Wednesday evening in confident mood

"It is not really possible to cause any surprises to the other teams in the Europa League group stages. We were not known when we began the group games, and the others did not know a lot about us. Now they know us better thanks to the results we have achieved. At the same time there is no real pressure on our team. We also said at the start of the group stage, that we were the weakest side in the group, if we look at the history of the sides, and the results gained on the international stage in recent years. Then there is also the budgets which tell their own story. We are also not as experienced as the other teams in Europe. FC Basel will be playing at home, and they need to pick up points, so we will not be the team playing under pressure. The aim at the start was to be competitive in the group games. We have managed to do this with our performances so far. The other target is for the whole team to enjoy where we are now."

Author: David Rechnitzer