Torino midfielder Omar El Kaddouri believes a fervent following from the stands can help his side to victory in the Europa League.
They will have to do things the hard way against Zenit St Petersburg after a two goal defeat in the first leg but is confident that they can put Andre Villas-Boas’ side in trouble.
“We expect a full stadium for the game and this will give us an extra boost,” El Kaddouri told the media. “Playing with 25,000 fans in the stands charges you full of emotion and I think that will be in force even more so on Thursday. In Bilbao, we had 3,000 fans present and we could hear them on the field which certainly helped us to win the game.”
The former Napoli man also says the squad feels similarly to the way they did before their trip to Spain in the previous round where they were also not given a great deal of chance to progress by the public.
“I feel similar to the way we did on the eve of the game in Bilbao. We feel relaxed, which it is very important to be going into a big game. If you think of it too much, then you risk not playing well,” he continued.
“We were on par with Zenit in the first leg for the first half hour but then there were some situations which we could have dealt with better. We know that if we play our game then we can put them in difficulty even though they have some very strong players of an international level.”
