Read all the reactions after the win against KV Mechelen below!
Ivan Leko: "Hugely proud of everyone!"
A draw against KV Mechelen finally sufficed for Blauw-Zwart to win its twentieth national title. Needless to say, Ivan Leko was an extremely satisfied and proud coach afterwards. The supporters again scanned "Ivan Leko, Bruges Army!" several times.
"This is just incredible and I am overjoyed," the Bruges coach responded after the title win. "The support we received from the supporters week after week was fantastic and this while we had to constantly chase in the past months. Also today it was a difficult match, but I am really happy for them and for everyone who loves our colors. It's a big day today after a very stressful match.We really needed to have a 0-3 lead already in this match after so many chances. Then when we swallow that equalizer at the end, you think, 'Why does this have to happen to us now?' Then we had to wait another good five minutes for the match in Gent to end. In the end, I think the best team in Belgium just very much deserved this. We have the best attack and best defense.
In soccer, ideally, the best soccer should just prevail. This is good for soccer: that the team that dares to take risks and plays to score one more goal ends up being champions. I am satisfied for everyone who has been part of this.
It was a difficult but bold decision to make a trainer change. It wasn't easy for me at the time either, but then when you work 24/7 and still get your luck.... that gives a lot of pleasure. For that I also want to thank everyone and now we have to enjoy above all that we are already champions one game before the end of the Champions' Playoffs. This is a great result for us!"
There was a lot of writing and talking during the trainer change, but in the end it worked out well. "This is probably my best five to six months ever, because we won so many games. When you have an average of 2.40 to 2.45 goals per game, you always have three goals: first, you have to get results, second, I'm very romantic when it comes to soccer and I like to play top soccer and third, I want to make my players better.
If you look at the results, you have to note that these are incredible results. It has been a long time since anyone could present this. Our soccer has been the best soccer in Belgium in the past few months, whatever people may say. Finally, my players have made tremendous progress and I am very proud of that.
I am also proud of the staff, myself, the players, but also the supporters who always believed this was possible. This is a fact that gives extra confidence, but also extra responsibility. This is not a copy-paste from several years back, but something new. We tried to anticipate and do the best possible with the selection we have.
I was really enjoying the past six months with my guys. We brought the soccer that I think everyone who is a fan of Club wants to see. We also win a lot in the process, like for example in the Playoffs, where we won a lot of matches and scored a lot of goals. So I am enormously proud of everyone!", concludes a proud Ivan Leko.
Christos Tzolis: "I don't know if this trophy is going to survive."
Tzolis may already add another Man Of The Match trophy to his mantel. He was once again golden with a goal and an assist. "I love earning trophies. The most important one today though is the trophy of national champion and thus our second star. Today I'm not worried about the MOTM trophy for a while."
Tzolis experienced the conclusion of his own match and that of Union with a lot of stress. "It's unbelievable. I don't know how we cashed in that second goal. I then thought it was 0-1 at Gent - Union, but then I suddenly heard that it was 0-0 after all. As a result, for a moment we were supporters of AA Gent today. That's a bit weird to say, but they did help us."
Actually, Blauw-Zwart could and should have killed the match off against KV Mechelen, but it didn't happen. "It was 1-2 and we definitely had the chances to make the match completely dead, but we don't do that and then you know what can happen. They score out of nowhere and then it gets exciting. Fortunately, we can forget about that hellish ending altogether now, because we are champions."
Closing does Christos the Savior with some prophetic words, "Thanks for the Man Of The Match trophy. I don't know if that one is going to survive until home, because we are going to celebrate hard tonight."
Nicolò Tresoldi: "Nicer with two stars on the shirt."
What was going through him, goal scorer Tresoldi found it hard to put into words. "It's incredible to celebrate this with these fantastic fans and so I'm very happy. At the end, I could barely watch the match in Gent. We really just needed to finish it ourselves with a win, but even this is okay in the end. It's better and nicer with two stars on the jersey anyway. It was our goal for the season and we achieved it. Time to enjoy this!"
Hans Vanaken: "Time for a big celebration."
As one of the only ones, Hans Vanaken did not look at the small screen of rights holder DAZN: "You can't do anything about it at that moment anyway and it was still a five-minute wait, I shook hands with the players of Mechelen who played a wonderful season. It was waiting for the final whistle and then a great relief followed. About assistant king Tzolis, the captain was clear: with his incredible statistics and the way he has played the last two years, he is simply the best player in the league. What will the evening bring? A big party with all the trimmings, with the whole team and the women there."
Joaquin Seys: "This one is for the fans."
Seys' emotion was great after winning the title. "Anger, joy, sadness. All the emotions of a whole season came out. Everything I had been bottling up suddenly came out." Seys could not watch the final game between Gent and Union. "The ignorance was terrible. Then when I heard it was over at Union so much fell off me."
He was also asked if he wanted to address the fans at home, and he had no hesitation in doing so. "This one is for you guys. The second star is with it. Sunday we will enjoy it together in Bruges."
Aleksandar Stanković: "I can't describe my emotions at the moment"
"Unspeakable, the emotions are incredible. Almost brothers with Tresoldi, we are going to enjoy a night of celebration. Tresoldi is an incredible player, he is going to have a great career."
Simon Mignolet: "I'm very happy that we became champions today."
Mignolet was only too eager to bring in another second star during his time at Club Brugge, and he succeeded. "I have no words for it. It was a crazy ending, but it doesn't matter because we are champions."
Of course, the championship was not won just this match, that is a work of long term and Mignolet knows that better than anyone. "I think we always digested the games very well. Especially the loss in Union we handled well, because that was a thunderclap. We have always continued to play attacking soccer and therefore deservedly became champions. I am very happy that we became champions today."
Brandon Mechele: "Seven titles is nice, but there could be more."
"Blood-curdling minutes were in front of that little screen, we haven't experienced anything like it. We have experienced many different titles in different ways, but this was still unseen. During the match we did hear that the result on the other field was favorable, but of course the countdown continued. It would also have been nicer to finish it off with a win ourselves, but champion is champion and based on the playoffs, it's just deserved."
"Seven out of twenty titles at Club Brugge, that is indeed punishment. Hans and I are very proud of it and we are not done yet. Seven is nice, but there could be more. After that defeat to Union it was difficult for a while but you know that in the playoffs anything can happen, from one week to the next the momentum tilted and we kept going. The summit is here, the process was one of long breath and hard work."