Anticipation high ahead of Bilbao test

Berlin – It wasn’t the most pleasant weather as Hertha took to the training pitches for the first time this week. Bilbao don’t have the same problem. The temperature was 20 degrees in the place Hertha will travel for Thursday’s Europa League match. “We may have missed a trick in our preparation,” remarked Dárdai. “We might have already been in Bilbao, trained there in the build-up to the game and got some sun. Thursday is going to be a big challenge. The team will try everything to win – we want to increase our chances of reaching the next round,” the head coach continued.

With four points from the first four matches, Dárdai’s side still have qualification to the knockout stages in their own hands. The Basque side, on five points, are third in the group, behind Östersunds (7) and Luhansk (6), so a win would put Hertha in a far better position going into the final game against the group leaders from Sweden. “We need fresh players against Bilbao, but also players with experience because this is a kind of knock-out match. We need to be clever,” said Dárdai, urging his players to lift their game ahead of Thursday’s showdown. “We’ve seen an improvement away from home in recent games and we want that trend to continue against Bilbao.” Hertha have already shown they can compete with their Basque opponents. The Blue-Whites drew their first game against the Spanish team and could even have taken the three points with two good chances.