NOS Football••Amended
FC Utrecht has so far retained one point from the adventure in the Europa League, which starts in round six on Thursday evening. Three more chances for trainer Ron Jans’ brigade to finally claim a victory, and preferably a memorable one.
The arrival of Nottingham Forest in the Cathedral City seems to be a great opportunity for this.
Although, it is again a tough job. Nottingham may be seventeenth in its own league, but that is the famous Premier League. “They spent 660 million euros on transfers this season,” Jans says from memory. To add with a great sense of understatement: “We just won’t achieve that.”
Ohio falls away
And then Utrecht also has to do without a centre-forward. Noah Ohio appears to have suffered a tear in his hamstring. He will probably not play again until the winter break.
Ohio did not figure in Jans’ plans for months, but did well at Jong FC Utrecht and came back into the picture.
In the absence of David Min (injured) and Sébastien Haller (African Cup preparations), Ohio was back in the selection last Sunday against FC Twente (1-1) and came as a substitute. Dani de Wit started that match in the striker role.
Jans will also have to improvise at the center against Nottingham Forest, with De Wit or Miguel Rodrigues or Yoann Catheline as options again. “Because you can make strikers, just look at Guus Til,” Jans said about PSV’s successful occasional striker.
‘Fascinating, challenging, but also difficult opponents’
So far it has always been ‘just not’ in the Europa League. A result was only achieved at home against FC Porto (1-1). “We knew that in advance: we have very interesting, challenging but also difficult opponents,” says Jans. “All the teams we have played against are in the top ten.”
The coach did not get it completely right at the press conference the day before the meeting with the English. Olympique Lyonnais (first), SC Freiburg (fourth), Real Betis (fifth) and FC Porto (eighth) are indeed high, but SK Brann is number nineteen.
The Norwegians have eight points, just like number sixteen Nottingham Forest.
Need some luck
“You need a little luck,” Jans realizes. “But you also have to enforce that. You just have to be on top of it with the support of the public. And get the best out of yourself. Then we can make it difficult for every team, including Nottingham.”
The chance of surviving the competition phase of the Europa League is extremely slim, but FC Utrecht still has plenty to play for, Jans believes. “Ha, the honor! We want to show ourselves every match.”
“I think there will be 22,000 people again tomorrow. Then you’re not going to take it easy, are you? These are great matches, we are enjoying this European campaign.”
