Hertha BSC travel to NK Ljubljana for the first leg of their UEFA Cup second qualifying round tie on Thursday (20:45).
“The club is better than our first round opponents Nistru Otaci, but we're surely favourites and want to go through by all means”, Hertha coach Lucien Favre said ahead of the visit to the Slovenian cup winners.
Hoeneß warns
Dieter Hoeneß is confident, too. “We have respect for our opponents, of course. But if you look at both squads you have to say that we want to go through.”
“They won't be pushovers. It would be dangerous If we think that we're already through “, Hertha's sporting director warns.
Several drop-outs
Hertha had overcome Moldovan sice Nistru Otaci (8-1, 0-0) in the first round.
The Berliners will be without Christian Fiedler, Lucio (both cruciate ligament damage), Arne Friedrich (lumbar vertebra), Sofian Chahed (finger surgery), Pal Dardai (torn muscle) and Gojko Kacar (Olympics) in Celje, where NK play their European matches.
Prominent coach
The most prominent face in the NK ranks will sit on the bench: coach Alberto Bigon had won the Serie A with SSC Naples and Diego Maradona in 1990.
NK are bottom of the Slovenian league with just two points from four games at the moment, an incredibly poor start given that Ljulbjana are said to have the highest budget of the whole league.
Hertha line-up as expected:
Drobny - Stein, Simunic, Kaka, Radjabali-Fardi - Ebert, Lustenberger, Cicero, Piszczek - Raffael, Pantelic
Manageable tasks for Hertha and VfB
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No lack of confidence all-round