Roger Schmidt: "Focused and showing our quality"

PREVIEW

It is a Benfica full of ambition that will close the group stage of the Champions League, and can still reach the 1st place in group H.

Benfica has secured qualification for the round of 16 of the Champions League. Now, the goal is to finish in 1st place in the group?

Yes, of course. We are happy to have already qualified for the knockout stage, but the situation in the group is very clear. We have the same points as Paris Saint-Germain and both teams have very difficult games away from home. We are in the Champions League and we always try our best, just like in the other games. It is an obligation to show our best performance, our best mentality, so we will try and we want to play a good match. Then we will see what happens in Turin. We have every reason to play another good match in the Champions League.

Do you expect Maccabi Haifa to play in Israel as they did in the Lisbon match?

They played a good game when they came here [to Lisbon]. If you see the other games, they always showed the same kind of football, brave, active, with a lot of intensity. They are very good when they don't have the ball and also in transition moments. They have confirmed what they showed in our stadium, it was a difficult match for us and the same will happen there. Their fans are passionate, and Maccabi have a clear goal, they can still qualify for the Europa League. We have to expect the best of motivations from them, a good atmosphere in the stadium, and we have to be prepared. It will be a very difficult game for us and we will try our best to show our quality, play a good match and win.

It will be the first match of the season without Enzo. What do you expect from the team without the contribution of the Argentine international?

I expect the same! Enzo is already a very important player for us but, sometimes, we also have to substitute players who are in excellent form and are essential for the team. We've already shown that we can compensate for these situations, and other players will play, I'm sure they have the quality to keep us playing the same way. Fredrik [Aursnes] has already shown that he can and does play very well in this position, Florentino has been very good, we also have Paulo Bernardo for that position. We have other options.