VfL go into this evening’s UEFA Europa League Round of 16 second-leg tie against Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev (kick-off 18:55 CEST) needing to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the first leg. The winner will book their spot in the Europa League finals tournament, which will be held in the North Rhine-Westphalia area of Germany from 10 August.
Training in balmy temperatures
The Wolves completed their final training session ahead of the match in temperatures as high as 28ºC, with 30ºC forecast for kick-off today. The fixture may be taking place behind closed doors on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Oliver Glasner’s charges are very much fired up for the occasion as they look to progress to the next round.
“We’ve still got to make amends for the first leg,” said Wout Weghorst. “We’re really looking forward to it and we didn’t come here just to gift the match to the opposition. We obviously want to get through to the next round.”
The fact that Shakhtar’s last competitive outing was just over two weeks ago while the Wolves’ was back at the end of June is neither an advantage nor a disadvantage according to Weghorst: “The only thing that matters is that you go out onto the pitch wanting to win. As a team we’ll do everything we can to make that happen so that we can stay in the competition.”
