On October 14 at 03:00 WIB, Lille will travel to Arsenal's home ground for the second match of the Champions League group stage. Ahead of the match, Lille head coach Davide Ancelotti attended a press conference. This article covers the second half of that press conference.

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Good evening, Davide. Have you watched Arsenal's recent matches against Brighton and Leeds United? What's your assessment of those two matches? Do you feel there are more opportunities and space now to achieve an ideal result against them?

Premier League matches are always very difficult and intense, with so many teams displaying vastly different tactical styles and characteristics, making each encounter highly varied. Both Brighton and Leeds United posed many problems and challenges for Arsenal, and these two teams have completely different styles. Additionally, Sunderland also demonstrated very good tactical acumen when facing Arsenal.

We must give proper respect to Arsenal; their strength is well-known throughout Europe. However, while respecting our opponents, we must not lose our own team character and tactical identity. We will prepare thoroughly and carefully for this match, fully demonstrating Lille's quality of play, and present a real challenge to Arsenal in tomorrow's match.

A day before the Champions League match, we didn't see Lille conduct an open training session at the stadium today as usual. What's the reason behind this change?

This is indeed an unusual arrangement. Undoubtedly, positive emotion is very important for a team, especially when training at the day before a match at a legendary stadium like Emirates, which often provides an emotional boost. However, things don't always have to follow the same pattern. Making such an arrangement a day before the match is a preparation method I'm accustomed to and greatly prefer, and that's the fundamental reason for my decision.

You just mentioned feeling older, but you're still a very young head coach, and you yourself are still very young. However, as an assistant coach, you already have the outstanding achievement of winning the Champions League twice. Now that you've stepped forward to become a head coach, what inspiration has this valuable Champions League-winning experience given you?

These experiences have taught me that the Champions League is a unique, very special, and great competition. On this stage, you face the top and strongest teams throughout Europe. Therefore, the level of focus required is unique, and the dedication and unwavering belief within you are also unparalleled.

In this competition, extraordinary miracles can happen at any moment. I have personally witnessed all kinds of miracles unfold in the Champions League — for example, incredible comebacks within a single minute, all sorts of unimaginable crazy scenarios can be revealed in this competition. Because of this, we must always maintain firm belief and fight with confidence until the final moments. Therefore, all the valuable lessons and insights I've gained from past experiences form the core spirit I'm trying to convey to my players and to the entire club.

Arsenal is very strong in both set-piece attack and defense, and you previously brought in a set-piece specialist to enhance the team's performance in this area. How much do you think the team has improved in set-piece details, and how will you counter Arsenal's threatening set-piece tactics tomorrow?

Set-piece tactics are an area where we invest considerable energy and time daily in deep research and intensive training. I think our overall defensive solidity has remained very stable and consistent since last season. However, in the second phase of defense — particularly in contesting the second ball — we still have significant room for improvement. Sometimes, when playing against teams like Nice, we faced some problems and hidden dangers in handling the second ball, so we've been doing targeted special training to continuously improve and refine this aspect.

At the same time, in our set-piece attacking play, we're actively developing our own attacking tactical characteristics, which is one of our core tactical objectives this season. I feel that so far this season, we've only scored one goal from a set piece, against Real Betis, through Alessandro Ribeiro, so we'll continue to work hard.

All of this requires time to adapt and come together. You must implement every detail: sometimes the movement and positioning in the penalty box is very good, but the delivery might not be accurate enough; sometimes the delivery is excellent, but the attacking run to meet the ball in the box falls short. Therefore, I believe it takes sufficient time for the team to perfectly integrate and execute all these elements.

Although Lille's recent results have been good, critics last week raised some concerns about the team's performance, pointing to a lack of intensity during matches. Do you think this intensity will naturally emerge in the Champions League? Will the team elevate its performance to a new level in this competition against such strong opposition?

It's very difficult to maintain a very high level of performance in every match. I often watch various matches around the world, and I've never seen any team play nearly perfectly all the time. We must clearly identify areas where we need to improve and work on them. Undeniably, we're currently still in the stage of exploring and forming our team's offensive tactical characteristics, so we're directing all our efforts toward that.

However, I'm very confident that we have a very solid defensive tactical foundation, and we're currently on the right path, which is very important for the team to build confidence. We have many outstanding players with high technical quality in attack, and I'm confident that as the season progresses, the team's confidence and quality will develop. I have no doubt that in tomorrow's match, we will show everyone our intensity and fighting spirit, where we will battle for every ball and never give up.

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