Football | HJK’s head coach Toni Koskela gladly accepted José Mourinho’s praise – “It’s worth focusing on everyday work and keeping it as the main focus”

Rome

HJK’s head coach Toni Koskela39, had consulted his coach colleague, AS Roman, on Wednesday José Mourinho’s, 59, praise the organization of the Club’s game. A Finnish coach rarely gets to hear such praise from the top of the coaching world.

“Of course it’s flattering. It’s a coaching legend. More than 20 years at the top. This is the kind of business that you shouldn’t listen to what is being said around you. You should focus on your everyday work and keep it as your main focus,” Koskela said at Wednesday evening’s international press conference.

As an aside, HJK’s press conference was not particularly interesting to local journalists, with a couple of exceptions. It tells about how uninteresting a team HJK is in the eyes of the Italian media.

For HJK’s players and coaching, on the other hand, Thursday’s Europa League second group match against Rome is something unique, and one of the highlights of the fall.

“As a coach, I am young, at the beginning of my own path. Of course, this is a significant game, and a fantastic place to measure our level,” said Koskela.

“We have to dream big. Even though we are away, in the same way we have to dare the things that we want to do in the matches anyway. It’s not easy.”

Wednesday night at the press conference, Koskela was accompanied by a key player in the defense line Jukka Raitala. According to him, on Thursday you have to prepare for everything possible.

“Vasta has a world-class team that plays day in and day out against world-class opponents,” Raitala said.

“We hear the room is full. AS Roma will have a strong home crowd behind them. That’s a good start to what’s to come.”

The Stadio Olimpico is really sold out on Thursday. In addition to the two hundred HJK supporters, there are almost 60,000 other spectators.

“We are going into the match with a good feeling. The setting is clear. AS Roma is the overwhelming pre-favourite. It suits us. We have good confidence about the Betis match,” Raitala said.

“It is important that we are not afraid. We’ll take what comes.”

Last In the week against Betis, HJK made some fatal mistakes, a couple of which led to goals for Betis, as the Spanish team beat HJK 2-0 in Töölö.

According to Koskela, at this level, i.e. in the Europa League, every mistake is dangerous.

“Tomorrow we are away. There are a handful of teams in the world who can think of playing away as well as playing at home. We have to think about how we can avoid mistakes with the team’s structure,” Koskela said.

“Easier said than done. Surely there will be some mistake tomorrow too. You have to figure out those moments as well as possible. There are mistakes in football.”

I’m asking according to Thursday’s match, whether Roma plays with a four- or five-man defense line will not affect it. According to him, Roma wants in any case to have big spaces to use for their attackers, who have the quality to solve the game.

“Roma definitely wants to produce an initial shock. Press comes from everywhere. Someone always comes towards the ball. The biggest threat comes in those situations when there are large spaces to be utilized by the attacking trio.”

According to Jukka Raitala, HJK’s most experienced players have a lot of responsibility on Thursday.

“We have to take the reins and bring calmness. It is definitely the job of the more experienced players to take responsibility.”