Carl Hoefkens: "Belief in our own ability is huge"

"The fact that I felt a very slight disappointment speaks volumes about the faith and confidence I have in this group of players," the coach began. "I think I did give way very quickly to the realization of what we did. When you get 4 out of 6 against two of the three teams and get 3 out of 6 against the other and when you keep zero five times in the Champions League, those are things you have to be incredibly satisfied with. As for today's game, we also came here to win. We wanted to play dominant and there were some pressure moments. That chance from Kamal (Sowah) was one of them, but the goalkeeper caught it well. In the second half you get another opportunity, but of course you know that at this level you have to grab the small moments. Both we and they didn't grab them and that way it's a draw and then in the end you have to say that you have to be incredibly proud of what we realized."
At halftime, the coach was aware of the score in the other group match. "I indeed knew at halftime what the score there was, but I deliberately did not mention that to my group of players because we had the intention to win this match anyway. Therefore, I don't want any other thought to go through their minds other than to finish every action as best as possible. I was satisfied with the intensity and then it turns out that you do get some opportunities in the second half. Then in the last quarter of an hour you go looking for that winning goal, but then of course you have to remain careful. In the last 10 minutes we effectively went all-in."
In addition, the coach also complimented his group for the fine group stage. "My group gets a 9 out of 10 from me. Anyone who would have predicted this before the group campaign would have immediately declared that person crazy, I think. The fact that we still realized this as a group, and then I'm talking about everyone towards the whole club and the steps we made. For me personally also that I never had the feeling that my group started a game with the attitude of defending. Our intention has always been to play dominant soccer and to put high pressing and counter-pressing. That has worked very well in many matches at the very highest level at many times. If you can convince your player group to play that way and those are the results, then I can't help but give a 9 out of 10."
They were also already looking at the next phase. "I leave in the middle whether it makes a world of difference whether we are first or second. If you look at which teams that are second, you'll see that there are also big clappers among them. But of course it does make a difference and we knew that beforehand and it seems logical to me. What comes out of the draw doesn't matter to me personally. I think we have a good basis to make it really difficult for any team. Five goals in six games means that we are stable and the belief in our own ability is huge. So I am looking forward to seeing who comes out of that drum and we are going to do everything we can to bring the same that we have brought so far."
Respect from opponents also grew. "The way Atlético played that second game against us, you felt they had adapted to us. Porto had adapted completely and today you also noticed that Leverkusen didn't really want to press high (which they always did until here). They didn't want to take too many risks in the build-up and they were very careful about that. For us that was also an advantage today, so you do notice that teams have more and more respect for us. That's great to see and feel and you also notice that in the entourage of those teams."
The coach doesn't want to know about less sharpness up front. "There is no less sharpness, but it's just the moments you have to grab. I was very satisfied today also from my attacking players, but of course you also play against really big quality and big and strong defenders. Then you know you're not going to play 10 chances together and then you just have to grab those little moments. Unfortunately that was not the case today, but I can't blame any of my players. I am also satisfied with Brandon (Mechele) and Dedryck (Boyata). The latter perhaps had a lesser match against Ostend, but it was nice to see how he learned from his mistakes and even apologized to the group. Those are elements that make the group dynamic enormously strong. If both Brandon, Dedryck and Bjorn are at their normal level like today, I'm the first to accept that they can also slip up from time to time. If they constantly ride at 180, things can go wrong once in a while...but our ambition is to ride 200," concluded a satisfied coach Hoefkens. (TM)