Hütter: “An important showing of solidarity”

Borussia head coach Adi Hütter spoke about Wednesday evening’s friendly against the Ukraine national team (20:45 CEST) on Monday morning.

Adi, when the request for the friendly came in around a week ago, did you have to take into consideration that the kick-off date doesn’t fit in too well with our run-in?

Hütter: We didn’t think about that at all when the request came in from the Ukrainian FA. We agreed straight away because we’d like to support the Ukraine national team who are currently preparing for their World Cup play-off against Scotland. It will be Ukraine’s first match since the war broke out. Therefore, we’re proud to be able to host this friendly given the current situation.

As well as helping Ukraine out from a sporting perspective, the proceeds from this game are also going to provide support from a financial perspective.

Hütter: Absolutely. The footballing aspect is one side of it, but the other is that the proceeds from the game are going to be donated to provide further support to Ukraine. This match sends an important message of solidarity, and I think it’s good for us as a team to play in this match.

How will you and your side approach the game?

Hütter: We want to put in a good performance and be a worthy opponent for the Ukraine national team. We’ve got a few players out with knocks and injuries, and so we’ll go into the game with a bit of a different squad, but we’ll have two strong sides out for each half. We can also use this as an opportunity to try one or two things out and give players who haven’t played a lot recently some game time.