Nicky Hayen was obviously very proud. “We were well prepared, the players executed the plan perfectly. It was an incredible achievement.”
Everyone now dreams of a Conference League final, but Hayen remained calm. “I’m not going to think too far ahead, that’s the biggest mistake we can make. It goes without saying that we are looking forward to the semi-finals. We don’t have anything in our hands yet, but we can make history.”
Andreas Skov Olsen was not there in Thessaloniki. He left the squad on Thursday to get a second opinion on his hip injury in Copenhagen. Hayen: “Skov experienced a setback in his rehabilitation. I wanted everyone here, because we can achieve this together, but after a conversation with Skov, who was disappointed, we decided in consultation that he could leave. I didn’t think it was appropriate to be disappointed with the team.”
It appears that Skov Olsen will not play in the upcoming matches against Union and Genk.
(read more below the photo)
© BELGIUM
Hans Vanaken: “We have to dare to dream to reach the final”
“This qualification is wonderful, it is a historic moment. Has it been 31 years since a Belgian team was in a European semi-final? That was a while ago, that says enough,” says Hans Vanaken.
“We actually should have distanced ourselves more from PAOK in the first match, because you knew that it could still be difficult with the atmosphere here and their supporters. However, we showed from the start that we were the better team. We just didn’t give them a chance to make a witch’s cauldron. The entire team deserves a big compliment for that.”
Club Brugge went into halftime with a 0-2 lead after two goals from Jutglà. “Although we knew it could be haunted here, we dared to play football from the start. We had already seen in the first leg that their way of applying pressure was not great. We found the spaces and the football went well. The only downside is perhaps that it could have been more than 0-2 at half time. Maybe we should have played it out more in the second half, but of course you don’t want to be too crazy. Still, I think we could have kept more possession in their half. Now we lost a little too much ball.”
It’s like finding nails at low water. Club Brugge’s qualification was over-deserved in two matches. Club also won the first leg 1-0.
“It is true that we expected the assignment to be more difficult, but that perhaps also shows our strength. At home we still had the feeling that perhaps they were satisfied with that 1-0 defeat and were counting on putting things right in their stadium. But we started well here and immediately gave them the feeling that we could easily play through it. Their supporters just haven’t had the chance to get behind their team. In two matches it was indeed easier than we thought beforehand.”
The air is clearing again over Club Brugge, while not long ago the club was in full crisis with the inevitable dismissal of Ronny Deila as exponent. Club is now unbeaten for five games in a row under interim coach Nicky Hayen and has won four times in a row.
“It’s that fast in football. That’s the great thing about playing in Europe. If you suffer a defeat in the competition, you will have the opportunity to put things right a few days later. We were pretty much written off for everything at one point. Europe was our only bright spot and look where we are now. But on Sunday there is another important assignment on the program (the move to Union, ed.). After that it is against Genk twice more and then we can look at that first semi-final against Fiorentina. It goes fast, but that’s fun when you’re in a good flow. Fiorentina is an opponent on a different level, but we must dare to dream. Once you are here, you want to reach that final.”
© BELGIUM
2024-04-18 22:05:32
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