Tue 09 Dec - Posted in Breaking News
Time to read: 3mins
Sondre Langas says Derby County will be striving to ‘show a reaction from the first minute’ when they step out onto the Pride Park Stadium turf again against Millwall on Wednesday evening (7:45pm kick-off).
The Rams have an immediate opportunity to avenge Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at home to Leicester City, taking on Alex Neil’s high-flying Millwall side, who currently occupy third place in the Sky Bet Championship.
Norwegian international Langas has helped Derby to six wins from nine since returning from a knee injury in October and nodded in his second goal in as many home matches at the weekend.
Now approaching the midway point of his first full season in English football, the winter arrival from Viking caught up with RamsTV to discuss acclimatising to the Championship, the challenges of a hectic festive period, his friendship with fellow Norwegian Lars-Jørgen Salvesen, and the team’s desire to show a positive reaction against Millwall.
It's not acceptable what happened in the first half, especially to concede three goals that fast. I think the reaction in the second half was good, but when Leicester are leading 3-0, it's hard to score four.
That's something we must talk about, but you also have to try and focus on the next game. The good thing about the Championship is you have so many games, so we can't focus too much on that [Leicester] game.
I’m loving it here; it's a really nice group. It's the same environment as it is in Norway, in terms of the football group. You have to adapt, but everybody [back home] just loves to see me play football here. They like to hear about it.
I think it has been fine [physically]. I don't think too much about it because we train and have games, so you always feel your body is fit enough to be ready. I don't feel a big difference about that.
It's more mentally, because I'm used to almost having a vacation in the off-season. So, it's more thinking my head has to be more focused.
Christmas is going to be very different from what I'm used to, because I'm used to having days off. There are games all the time now, but I think that's the best thing for me; I like to play games.
It's a big thing in Norway to watch the Boxing Day games. So, to be in it, it just feels really good because that's what I want to be involved in. I'm looking forward to playing all those games, hopefully.
My family is coming over, so they're going to celebrate Christmas at home with me. But I’m still going to be focused on the matches. You just have to relax and be ready for the next game.
We are really close. We are together a lot, because we're good friends. We talk together in the changing room, of course, but we also meet after training and in the evenings. We meet three or four times a week, because it's just fun to be with someone similar.
Lars is a really nice guy. I always want to help him, so it's great to have him here too.
One of the most important things [after Saturday] is to give a really good reaction now. We have to bounce back and show our reaction from the first minute. Hopefully that’s what we will do on Wednesday.
Pride Park Stadium
Middlesbrough
Hull City
Wrexham
Derby County
Norwich City
Birmingham City
Swansea City
Bristol City
