Bayer Leverkusen’s Hakan Çalhanoğlu warns ‘it won’t be easy for Lazio’ in Germany tomorrow night.
The Biancocelesti hold a 1-0 lead from the first leg of the Champions League play-off, but the Turkish international expects a different match in the second leg.
“We didn’t score [in the away leg], and Lazio were good in defence,” Çalhanoğlu explained to Calciomercatonews.
Bayer Leverkusen’s Hakan Çalhanoğlu warns ‘it won’t be easy for Lazio’ in Germany tomorrow night.
The Biancocelesti hold a 1-0 lead from the first leg of the Champions League play-off, but the Turkish international expects a different match in the second leg.
“We didn’t score [in the away leg], and Lazio were good in defence,” Çalhanoğlu explained to Calciomercatonews.
“But to be honest we should have converted some of our chances. We shouldn’t have lost the match, but it’ll be a different story in Leverkusen, we just have to be more focused.
“We knew all the Lazio players, because the Coach [Roger Schmidt] prepared us well. We won’t face any player we don’t know about. Lazio are a good team though.
“More than their individuals, what strikes me is their collective compactness.
“I don’t care if we deserved to win in Rome or not, the fact is that Lazio won, the rest doesn’t matter. At home we have to play better than we did in Italy, that’s our goal.
“It won’t be easy for Lazio, because at home with our fans behind us we’ve beaten several big teams like Atletico Madrid.”
Çalhanoğlu also revealed the inspiration for his free-kick technique is a former Aquile hero.
“Since I was little I’ve always studied several free-kick takers, including Sinisa Mihajlovic, who was one of the greatest ever.
“It’s always been fascinating to me to study what the greatest players in the world are able to do with free-kicks in different areas of the pitch.
“From the sideline or from 40 metres, a free-kick can be dangerous at any time, and in my opinion that’s a very intriguing thing about football.”