Daniel Farke: It’s always difficult to play against them

Ahead of his team’s game against Blackburn Rovers on New Year’s Day, Daniel Farke joined the media to preview the game.

The Whites will begin 2025 against Rovers at Elland Road after ending 2024 on a winning note, winning their last nine games in a row on home soil.

However, John Eustace’s side will pose another big challenge having won the second leg at Ewood Park just a month earlier.

“It’s just another game, but also against one of the best teams in this league,” explained the manager.

“Blackburn are in a top position, although of course they had a disappointing result (a 1-0 loss to Hull City).

“But it’s a really good team for me, definitely a contender for the top six and also the top two. They are ambitious and have a really good squad and a really good manager.”

“It is always difficult to play against them and our experience, not only this season but also last season, is that they are well structured against the ball.

“It is not easy to open them and for that we have to do our best again to find good solutions.

“There are also better solutions than we found in the first game to create chances and cause problems for them.”

“We just want to focus on ourselves and keep going and not let the standards drop.

“And then we make sure we want to be in every game, be it a home game, an away game, whoever is top of the league or maybe fighting against relegation.

“We want to play at the best possible level and reward ourselves with the best possible result, that’s the same task against Blackburn.”