Kovac: ‘Juventus have enormous potential, we will have to resist the pressure’
Borussia Dortmund head coach Nico Kovac was full of praise for Juventus and his friend Igor Tudor ahead of the meeting of the two sides in the Champions League on Tuesday night, but insists that the Bundesliga side ‘want to show that we have the quality to impose ourselves’.
The Bianconeri get their 2025-26 Champions League campaign underway with the visit of 2024 finalists Borussia Dortmund at the Allianz Stadium on Tuesday night.
Click here to read Igor Tudor’s pre-match press conference in full
Click here to read Manuel Locatelli’s pre-match press conference in full
Everything Kovac said about Juventus in Dortmund presser
Kovac began with a brief assessment of his own side, who, like Juventus, were also involved in league action on Saturday.
“We made good steps forwards, we want to be competitive,” Kovac told the press (via TMW).
“We haven’t decided how we’ll play yet, but we’re totally ready. We’ll see if all the players are able to recover.
“I’ve explained recently that we have a varied squad, and with this double pivot, we have five players who can play in different roles. There’s competition, we have different player profiles, and we have to find a balance.”
Kovac believes that the home advantage will be a huge benefit to Juventus on Tuesday night.
“We’re playing away from home tomorrow night, and that’s an advantage for them. There will be 40,000 fans in attendance. We will have to resist the pressure from their fans as well.
“We saw the qualities of this team when we played them in Dortmund, we saw that they have a great squad with enormous potential, but we want to show tomorrow that we have the quality to impose ourselves in Turin.”
And, on his friend, Tudor, who guided Juventus into the Champions League positions after taking over from Thiago Motta towards the end of the 2024-25 campaign, Kovac said:
“I’m happy to go up against Igor tomorrow, and his coaching career doesn’t surprise me.
“It’s an exceptional achievement to have made it to the Champions League, and he did very well in France as well. Juventus have a lot of good players. We’ll see how it ends tomorrow.”