Miroslav Djukic with the press in Slovenia

Partizan coach chatted to media reps upon arrival to Moravske Toplice:

– We are entering second part of the preps and the emphasis will be on team coordination and picking the form up. We have to work on our game and to gain firmness. We we play strong friendlies and we have all the conditions needed to achieve our aims.

We want to have full squad as soon as possible. Some players were away on international duty while others had extended holidays. We need them all to work on team coordination, to make things easier. Kosovic and Jankovic are back with the squad and we are waiting for the others. We need them all to be competitive in such an important European quest.

Leonardo is a type of player who doesn`t need long preps to pick up form. He can gain the pace as we move ahead. Djurdjevic was given four more days off after EC where he played most of the games. We need him fresh and we expect him here on Thursday.

We had lots of Partizan youths at Zlatibor preps and they are very talented kids. Now, we kept centre-backs Bosnjak and Markovic as we are lacking players at the back and I think these kids can help us. They are quite young but this is going to be great experience for them.

Our youths are our jewels. We have to look after them and to upgrade their abilities. They are our bright future. They will be given opportunities but we have to rely on experience.

I was not pleased with two friendlies we had but it was all about physical preps at Zlatibor camp. We mixed a lot with the team trying various stuff. But we didn`t look good physical-wise, we lacked freshness and pace.  I didn`t like it but we did our runs and physical part, now we have to work on more important things.

Our defence is experienced and serious, our backbone. That`s important in Europe where your base is defensive firmness and then build up the rest.

Partizan is big club and demands here are massive. I`m here to do the job and I`m aware of everything. We are capable team and we have players ready to achieve club`s aims.