Antonio previews NS Mura: "We will take this fixture very seriously"

Antonio Conte has underlined the importance of our UEFA Europa Conference League Matchday Five clash against NS Mura at Maribor’s Stadion Ljudski vrt on Thursday evening (5.45pm UK).

Victory over last season's Slovenian PrvaLiga champions would move us onto 10 points in Group G. That means if current leaders Rennes (10 points) manage to beat Vitesse (six points) at home on Thursday, we will be through to the next phase of the competition, either in the knockout round play-off or the Round of 16 in February.

Antonio has confirmed he will rotate the squad - one of those changes will see Ryan Sessegnon start, as revealed on Wednesday morning - and momentum is key in this second of 13 games in 42 days between Sunday’s win against Leeds and our New Year’s Day trip to Watford.

“We know very well that we want to be a protagonist in this competition, so the game against Mura is very important for us,” said Antonio. “We need to get three points and we are going to take this fixture very seriously.

“Mura are a good team, and we have to pay great attention. They are well organised, usually play with a 3-4-3, the coach is good and, as I said before, we have to take this fixture very seriously, to go there with the right mentality and do our best.”

Away matches in Europe are a different proposition to playing at home - where we’ve won 11 of our last 12 - as proved by trips to Vitesse, Rennes, Pacos de Ferreira, Dinamo Zagreb, LASK and Royal Antwerp in the last couple of seasons.

“For sure, for Mura, it’s a really important game because they are playing against Tottenham,” added Antonio. “We know this, and for this reason we have to pay great attention and go there with the right mentality, with the will and desire to be ready to fight and at the same time, to play football, to score and to try to win.

“I repeat, we want to go through to the next step of this competition and the win tomorrow is very important.”