Jimmy Thelin met with the media at Pittodrie on Wednesday afternoon to preview our UEFA Conference League tie against FC Shakhtar Donetsk. RedTV subscribers can watch in full now.

“Of course we are optimistic. It will be a tough game, Shakhtar are a really good team, and they have a lot of experience in these games. But for us, it’s really important now to have belief in our own performance and get another chance to show our fans that we’re on the right track. For us of course it’s so important to be in Europe, prove ourselves in Europe, and to keep focused on changing some parts, and getting a good performance.

“I think these nights are always special, especially at Pittodrie. Europe is really important for our players and our club, to be there and perform there. Domestic games are also important, we know that, but right now we are focused on this game.

“I think we should always have the belief, and it’s super important to believe in the things you do, and then believe in the team, and we try to give everything that we can, and then we also believe we can get a good result tomorrow, if we do our things in a really good way.

“We know Shakhtar are a good team, but we also have to believe in ourselves when we go into any football game. Football is football, and if you do the good performance, and we get things right, then we have a chance to do something good tomorrow.

“We have to be strong in our conviction that we can turn things around, and this is another chance for us tomorrow to get out on the pitch, get the team going in the right direction and compete, and show everybody that we are a good team, and that every week we are going to take another step towards performing how we want.

“There are some small issues from the last game, but hopefully everybody’s fine for tomorrow.

“Let’s see tomorrow. Everybody has been doing their own thing in training because there has been so many games, so everybody has small adjustments in how they prepare for the game.

“I can only speak for myself, but I always think we should believe in the things we do, and always stay together and take the steps, and never give up, never give in, and always have the focus that you can always improve yourself.

“I think that’s the only way for me to work. We always have to take the challenges and some good things, we talk about the pressure, but life, and sometimes football, it’s challenging, you have to find the solutions, and you have to be strong in this moment.

“The players try every training session, every game, they go out. The good thing about the Motherwell game is that no player was hiding, they tried to take responsibility, they help each other, and they pushed for the win, we know the end of the game, but performance wise, it was a step in the right d irection.

“We have been training since then, and it is a different kind of opponent tomorrow, but I see our team is growing, our players are growing, so hopefully we can keep working on this now. We must believe in our own performance and fight for a good result.

“It’s the Cup, and it’s football. We have to believe in ourselves. Tomorrow it is 11 v 11 out there. I know we will think about the budgets and these kind of things, which is part of reality, but right now there is one game, and we have a strong belief in our performance.”

FC Shakhtar Donetsk at Pittodrie on MD-1