Club Brugge lost 1-0 on the field of Union. Read all the post-match reactions below.
Hans Vanaken: "The ball didn't fall right"
Blauw-Zwart went down 1-0 on the field of Union. At the end, Tresoldi had a chance to equalize, but Scherpen saved his header. Captain Vanaken kicked the rebound over. "We did everything we could: push forward, we pushed and pushed. It is then hoped that that ball falls well, but that didn't happen," sighed captain Vanaken.
Union left little room. "You know you have to defend well with everyone. They score from the tangle, we almost with Tresoldi. I also had a chance, but kicked the ball over. It was one of those games that didn't really deserve a winner."
Simon Mignolet: "We couldn't put them under enough pressure"
Mignolet was headed in from close range by Zorgane, but was able to prevent the 2-0 in the second half with a clever save on a free kick by Schoofs. "We got three minutes added on and I thought that was exactly little, but I had seen it coming. Too bad we weren't allowed to kick that corner kick at the end of injury time."
Union managed to score after a corner kick. "You know it's their thing. They are tough: both offensively and defensively. They have the necessary strength and try to use it against us, but we couldn't put enough pressure on them. We didn't play badly per se, but weren't dangerous enough. Once around their sixteen-meter area, the final pass was missing. At the end we could have scored after a stoppage time. They play physical soccer so we tried playing soccer, through the ground. At certain moments that worked nicely, but the precision in passing was not there today," Mignolet said.
Next week awaits the home match against Standard where Blauw-Zwart can hopefully get back on track with a win.
Ivan Leko: "Not enough today to play them out of context"
Blauw-Zwart lost the topper in the Dudenpark against Union by the smallest difference and thus sees the Brusselers move a little further ahead in the standings. Coach Ivan Leko was therefore quite disappointed after the match. "The main reason why we lost today is mainly because we could not play their block apart enough," the Bruges coach began his analysis. "They defended very well and used the long balls a lot and counted on their strong stationary phases. This also allowed them to open the score with a second ball on a corner kick and that was ideal for them. They have a good defense and are strong on the counter attacks. We, on the other hand, unfortunately were not good enough in our offensive aspect today. We had the ball quite a lot, but we didn't do enough with it. They were comfortable waiting for us in that area. They are two different ways of playing and understanding soccer. Today their formula proved to be the most successful."
Club started the match with both Forbs, Diakhon and Tzolis. "I don't regret it at all, because Vermant wasn't quite fit today. I probably wouldn't have started like that if Romeo was fully fit. So it was not a matter of trying to be smart. A player who scores 7 goals in 8 matches and who is top in energy and pressing, as well as scoring...Of course I would have started with him(Romeo) . However, he was not ready and then you have to make choices. Tresoldi and Tzolis were options for me and I found that Tzolis was very hungry to play. To play one-on-one against Burgess, you have to make it as difficult as possible for him. If you were to ask Burgess who he would prefer to play against, he will say Nicolò(Tresoldi), because that is a box player/target striker. However, we wanted something different, so I don't regret my choice. In the end, it wasn't a question of one player either, because our soccer in general was just not good enough today to play their organization out of context. So we are very disappointed, because we are now coming off a period where we had three good win matches and we wanted to show that again today. Unfortunately that did not succeed today," concluded a disappointed Ivan Leko.