Relief, but no hurray mood at the Red Devils: “It can and must be better” | Red Devils

There was still shivering and sweating in the final phase, but the Red Devils secured their European Championship ticket in Austria. Relief but also self-criticism prevailed in the interviews afterwards. “We made it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves after that 0-3,” he said.

Vertonghen: “Qualifying 6 times in a row is incredible”

“I was already there when it was normal for Belgium to miss the major tournaments,” laughed Jan Vertonghen afterwards.

“We have now qualified 6 times in a row, which is fantastic. But we realize that we can and must do better in the future,” the record international immediately added.

“What happened after the 0-3? They scored 2 more times. When I conceded the first goal, I kept my legs closed because I didn’t want him (Laimer) to kick through my legs and then surprise the goalkeeper. In the end the ball goes in with millimeter precision.”

“After the penalty we knew that it would be another fifteen minutes of sweating with the extra time. We persevered and got what we came for.”

Lukekabio: “A dream, but we are not going to celebrate yet”

Dodi Lukebakio had a glorious evening with his first 2 goals ever for the Red Devils.

“This is a dream for me. Scoring twice in this match was not easy. I will look back at my goals and think about them often.”

Lukebakio does admit that the system with 2 attackers still had growing pains. “Nothing runs perfectly when it is new. But the most important thing is that we have shown that we are mentally strong.”

“We are not going to celebrate this qualification yet, because we also want to win against Sweden on Monday and become group winners. That is our big goal now.”

Doku: “They should never have come back to 2-3”

“The goal was to win and qualify for the European Championships and we did that,” says Jeremy Doku succinctly.

“But it was a very difficult match, we knew that before we came here.”

“In the first half we played too low and showed too much respect. After half-time things went much better. But they should never have come back to 2-3.”

Doku was the man of the assist for Lukaku in the 2nd half. He was less decisive before half time.

“It’s true that I had to make my actions a little too far from the goal in the first half, but that way I make a lot of space for the other players,” Doku explains.

“I try to be important for this team and I also have the feeling that I played a good match.”

Matz Sels: “Glad I had my job”

Due to the absence of the ill Koen Casteels, Matz Sels was in the cage with the Belgians. It was by no means a quiet evening.

“I had some work to do in the first half. The Austrians put a lot of pressure and played very aggressively. But the individual quality has made the difference,” says Sels.

“At 0-3 the match was played normally, but we still made it a bit difficult for ourselves.”

Sels doesn’t care that it was a tough evening for him. “I am very happy that I had my job and that I was able to show myself. With all those good goalkeepers in Belgium, I have to seize the opportunities I get.”

2023-10-13 22:21:10
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