At 3:00 AM Beijing time (CET) on October 14, Club Brugge will face Inter Milan away in the second matchday of the Champions League group stage. Ahead of the match, Club Brugge head coach Ivan Leko attended a press conference. This article covers the first part of the press conference.

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Ivan, can you tell us about Carlos (Forbs) current condition?

The situation is quite positive. He hasn't played much recently, but today he participated in part of the team's training session and there were no significant adverse reactions. Let's hope everything goes well tonight, and then hopefully he wakes up tomorrow morning feeling better and has recovered enough to play compared to today.

Hello, last season Club Brugge only had 14 points after the first 8 matches of the domestic league, but now they have 21 points. What does this mean...?

14 points?

Yes, what does this signify? Is it because the team is stronger now, or have the opponents gotten weaker? I'm not sure...

Sorry, could you repeat the question?

I mean, in the first 8 matches of last season, Club Brugge only had 14 points...

Okay.

And now it's 21 points?

Ah, I thought you were talking about the Champions League!

No, no, no—I said 14 points! I'm talking about the current points in the domestic league. Does this have any special significance?

For me, it means what I want to see—a change in competitive spirit and intensity. It means that for 15 years, Club Brugge has been a team that pours a lot of energy into the Champions League, and then when the domestic league comes around at the weekend, people's mentality is often, "okay, let's see what happens," and they always think the championship is only decided in March, April, and May, because we know that domestic league points are halved after the regular season ends. I would say this is the most important point.

Regarding the quality and level of the team, we all know that we really sell players every summer and make significant transfers. Therefore, at the start of each season, we're still finding our best form, because it's almost always a newly assembled squad. So we can't say that the squad we have now is the squad we'll have in December or March, because we'll be better and stronger.

Therefore, I think the most fundamental difference lies in focus, the will to win, and the strong motivation to win every match and fight for every point. I didn't even realize the gap would be this big; a 7-point difference is still a significant advantage and a very substantial difference.

Yes, while we are very conscious of Club Brugge's DNA and style in the Belgian domestic league, would you want to apply the same approach in the Champions League? For example, tactics like high pressing and man-to-man marking? Will it be the same tomorrow when facing Inter Milan? Because everyone knows Inter Milan is a very strong team...

But listen, the first point is I don't believe that through just one training session—we only had one training session today—you can completely change a team's football philosophy and style of play. That's the first point.

The second point is we are very aware of who our opponent is; they are one of the top teams in Europe. Over the past five or six years, I really love watching the 3-5-2 formation developed by coaches like Simone Inzaghi and Conte. This is the best 3-5-2 system in Europe over the past five or six years—a team that dominates its domestic league and is the Champions League runner-up.

With all these achievements, these are undeniable facts. Then we come to a third fact, which is also the third point I've emphasized to my coaching staff and players: we are here to compete. We didn't come here just to participate; we came to fight for an ideal result. Therefore, if we can dominate the match and win like we do in the Belgian domestic league, I would certainly be the happiest; but if we can't dominate the match and we can still achieve a positive result, then fighting for a good result is always our top priority.

So, what can we expect from your plan for this match?

What you can expect is that we will be very brave. You can be absolutely certain that we will not only be brave but also intelligent. As for whether that will be enough? I hope so. I have complete faith in my boys, in my team. I know the potential and talent we have. I also know that we have learned, or are trying to learn, lessons from each Champions League match. Just a few weeks ago, we faced Aston Villa, also a top team. I really liked our performance in that match, especially in the second half.

If we can continue that excellent performance from the second half, plus a bit of luck—because to get a positive result here, you have to have luck. First, you have to hope that the opponent only performs at 70% or 80% of their ability, while we perform at 100% or even 120%; at the same time, your goalkeeper needs to make four or five incredible, heroic saves, and your forwards need to create goals out of nothing, with no warning at all.

But back to your question, the team will not make extremely significant changes or disruptions. Of course, this also depends on our opponent. From a tactical football perspective, our basic concept and intention is always to try to win the match. But if the opponent really puts extreme pressure on us, then we will fall back and defend near our penalty box, which might be the actual situation of the match at that moment.

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