It took a staggering 102 minutes of hard work, but in the end there is only one conclusion: Club Brugge has made it to the Conference League group stages, much to the relief of skipper Hans Vanaken.
“We knew that, despite the lead after the first leg, this would be a rough game. Osasuna is a solid and sturdy opponent, and today's game indicated as such again, even if their goals were not from free play. Still, we kept giving it all we had, and tried to stick to our game plan as much as possible. In the end, we reap the benefits of this.”
The two-fold Golden Boot continued. "This draw comes as a victory, really, because coming down to 0-2 against a Spanish outfit is a serious task at hand. But even before their first goal we had our chances too, and we also hit the woodwork twice. I don't think this is a hold-up, no. Right now we can enjoy this moment for a while, and tomorrow we'll see who we will be playing next in Europe. But for the entire Club family, it's just great we are certain of playing in Europe for the remainder of the year at least. And let's hope we can live up to the fame the Belgian teams have set out last season or even do better. But before it gets to that, we have an away game at Gent on Sunday, another tough mission. We are in a good flow, however, and we need to keep going along these lines.” (MV)