We begin our Europa League campaign on Thursday, away at last season’s semi-finalists, Eintracht Frankfurt.


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After arriving in Germany, Unai Emery addressed the media in his pre-match press conference – and here’s every word from it.

on the squad selection…
We are playing a lot of matches and I want to use different players and also we can have some rotation in the first XI. We have 19 players in the squad for tomorrow, Sokratis and Mesut are rested for the match.

on whether Mesut isn’t playing because the game is in Germany…
No.

on why Mesut is rested…
I prefer after Sunday’s match to rest for this match, to train and be ready for Sunday.

on whether this will be the toughest game in the group…
Yes, we are excited for the competition, we are going to start tomorrow and we are playing opponents who last year played the semi-final against Chelsea and lost on penalties against them. To start against them is a tough match for us, but also we are looking to start in the competition. We have good feelings in this competition for this season. We played last year in the final, we lost but for us it’s a new challenge this year.

on Mesut being rested…
Because we are going to play another match on Sunday. He played on Sunday now my focus is on tomorrow, and to decide my first XI, I decided who are the best players for tomorrow and decided also the players not in the squad, who are Sokratis and Mesut.

on whether Frankfurt’s physical approach is a reason behind it…
The first game he played on Sunday he played physically well, giving us his capacity. His first minutes for us this season were good and now he will be helping us, not tomorrow, but Sunday we have another match. We are thinking to do some rotation in the first XI.

on whether the team had a team bonding session this week…
Yes, they decided before the match to have dinner together. After the match they were disappointed but decided to go and be together. Our players are responsible for how they can take their hours out of the job and for me it’s perfect.