Club brought its first serious test of the season to a successful conclusion, as it won the outward match against Spanish side Osasuna 1-2. Captain Hans Vanaken was by all means thickly satisfied with the positive result.
"The magnificent kick by Maxim (De Cuyper, nvdr) for the 1-2 was fantastic to see," spoke the birthday boy Hans Vanaken. "It was immediately a good reaction after the equalizer. However, we gave up reasonably well in the second half. Osasuna is a team that can play soccer and with their many supporters behind them, they were able to put some pressure and at times we didn't come out well. Then after our 1-2 we did have more space to do something, something we did better in the first half. Especially that header at the end, from Zinckernagel, was a good example of that. For the rest, the home side did have most of the ball possession, but very many dangerous stands Mignolet didn't have in front of his goal. People sometimes think we take too much risk with our way of playing out, but that's just our way of playing to be able to find spaces with the opponent and we maybe did that a little too little in the second half today. Now, we are going to have to prepare well for the return so that we can play more under their pressure. Once we get into their half, we will be able to create some more chances and then we can hope to get into the pools of the Conference League." (FDC)