Conte praises De Vrij as 'like Bonucci'
'Satisfied with the attack? We started with a very precise idea, knowing the characteristics of the players. We knew we had three strikers with certain characteristics. Politano does not have the characteristics of Lautaro, Sanchez, and Lukaku and I ask the attackers for certain things. Esposito was initially the fifth choice and we knew we could be calm. Then Sanchez's injury was a bad loss and we have cleared Esposito. Now we have this squad, let's see, let's hope Sanchez can recover as soon as possible.
'We still have training to do in the afternoon and I want to talk to doctors about the right assessments. We must make a virtue of necessity and overcome the difficulties as we did with Dortmund. We are trying to recover physical and nervous energy and we have to prepare the game. We are ready to do battle, we will be ready as in the Champions League, knowing that it will be a difficult match.
'The growth of this team comes from assimilating certain concepts. Stefan [de Vrij], like Bonucci, becomes an important player because they must inevitably leave him room. Stefan is doing well. My defenders must be the first to rely on, even Godin had made assists against Udinese. We have to try it.'