Hans Vanaken: "Next season, the title should go to Brugge again"

"This is actually too crazy for words, because up until minute 80 or so Union was still the new national champion," the Limburger began immediately. "While they continued looking for a second goal, suddenly the equalizer falls and that was a serious blow for them. In the end, we even managed to score twice more, which doesn't take away from the fact that Union can still look back on a fantastic season. I told them that right after the final whistle."
"That we now keep Union from the title twice in a row is purely coincidental. Beforehand, we were still three candidates for the title and we knew it would be a very crazy final stage. Only in minute 93 did that title apparently suddenly go to Antwerp again. Whoever is in first place after the playoffs is the deserved champion. But I can assume that this obviously feels very sour to the players and supporters of Union."
When asked if the Bruges supporters could live with the title for Antwerp, however, the two-time Golden Shoe winner held off : "I don't really know where that hatred between the two supporter groups comes from and as a player you don't look at it either. We are professional players and the idea should be to always want to win your game. Today we fortunately succeeded in that, which allowed us to end our season on a positive note after all."
Finally, Vanaken also had words of praise for the youngsters who came in : "In 1B they have already shown that they have quite a lot of qualities and tonight they also showed this. Shion(Homma) comes in well and gets both a goal and an assist behind his name, while Cisse Sandra also gets his goal. It shows that they know how to make the necessary strides and that we can count on them. It will be necessary, because next season the title has to go to Brugge again," concluded the captain of Blauw-Zwart. (MV)