"Our focus is clear, we're only thinking about the game against West Ham," stressed Jeremie Frimpong straight away. The potentially decisive Bundesliga match at home to SV Werder Bremen on Sunday, where the Werkself could clinch the Bundesliga title, will not be on anyone's mind until afterwards. Frimpong added: "We want to give ourselves a good starting point for the second leg in London next week. It won't be easy because West Ham have a fantastic team, but these are exactly the games we look forward to. We want to test ourselves against top teams."
Regarding the defeat to AS Roma in the semi-finals of last season's competition, Frimpong said: "Obviously that wasn't easy for us, but perhaps that's one reason why we have a stronger mentality this season. We want to win every game and just don't like losing."
Kovar in goal, Arthur in squad
West Ham, winners of the UEFA Europa Conference League last year, beat SC Freiburg 5-1 on aggregate in the round of 16 of this competition. In those encounters, but also in their league matches, Xabi Alonso has seen "a physically strong team with great individual quality". The Bayer 04 head coach also highlighted "their great experience in Europe, which also gives them the necessary calmness in difficult periods of the game". For his team, that means: "We need to play with patience but a lot of tempo tomorrow, and have a good balance between our attack and defence. Only by doing that will we manage to take a good result to the second leg in London."
Alonso confirmed that Matej Kovar will again start in goal in the quarter-final first leg at the BayArena, while the Spaniard also announced the return of Arthur to the squad. The Brazilian has been out since Bundesliga Matchday 3. Only Adam Hlozek, who sustained an ankle injury against Union Berlin last weekend, is unavailable to face the Hammers.
Alonso: We all feel closely connected
The connection between the club, the Bayer company and the fans in the city was also brought up at the press conference. In response, Alonso explained: "We all feel closely connected as one with the Bayer AG. Everyone in the company gives us tremendous support. Then there are our great fans. We in the club are working to give everyone in the city and in the company even more joy at the end of the season. We can take another important step towards that against West Ham tomorrow."
