After the important win at Union Field, we sprinkled comments from captain Vanaken and coach Hayen.
Hans Vanaken: "The 0-2 was decisive"
After qualifying for the semi-finals of the Conference League, Club Brugge now also achieved victory on the field of season revelation Union. Because of this three-point win, Blauw-Zwart approaches to within two units of leader Anderlecht and this to the great satisfaction of Hans Vanaken.
"This is a very important victory and you see that the joy immediately after the match is therefore enormous. We knew beforehand that it would be a particularly tough task, just like in Greece, but partly due to the flow we are in now, we got the job done well," the Bruges captain opened his speech. "But just after we lose Vetlesen around the hour with a second yellow card, Meijer kicks in the 0-2 and ultimately his goal was decisive. Afterwards it was primordial to keep things closed at the back, so all in all we still managed to hold on quite easily. After the great 1-2 from Puertas, you know it's going to be tough, but even then we gave away very little. Maybe we didn't do enough offensively, but don't forget that Union finished the regular season as the leader. Then you know you have to fight hard here to get the three points and we proved that tonight. So it leaves the best hope for the rest of these playoffs."
When asked whether Club should now aim full on for the title, the Limburger nevertheless kept his answer rather neutral. "We can't deny that we did a good job today, but so did Genk yesterday. And Union is also far from eliminated. In our next two confrontations we will face Genk and then the cards could be completely different. We have a very busy schedule ahead of us and it will be a matter of looking at it match by match. But again, we are now in a period that things are going well for us, that we are playing with confidence on the ball and that we are also forcing the necessary luck ourselves. All this coupled with a good fighting mentality can provide a huge boost for us." (MV)
Nicky Hayen: "Won this match on character".
Club booked a very important victory on the Union field and is thus back in the race for the title. That obviously also satisfied interim coach Hayen.
"I thought we won this match on character," Hayen began his analysis. "We know well enough that it was not a pretty match along our side. However, when you know it was match 55 and after a very tough week and you put this on the mat based on physicality, intensity and survival spirit and survival mode and you pull this over the top...you can be very satisfied with the team spirit and the team spirit. Everyone laid their heads for it today and a big chapeau for that. We must dare to admit that it is an "ugly" victory, but no less beautiful for that. You still have to be able to rely on good organization and I think we showed that we didn't back down. We've been trying to keep playing with two strikers. Has the pressure always been perfect? No, but that's also not illogical when you had another tough game on Thursday and today with 10 men. That's obviously the scenario you don't hope for, but we stayed well organized. Obviously the pressure was there and opportunities came, but I'm absolutely satisfied with that play."
Club is now two points off the lead. "I said from the beginning that we always just look to the next game. Today you can say that we are on two points and have to go full for that title. Innerly that might be the ambition, but if we lose two or three games soon, then they say Club is out of the title race. So I'm just very level-headed and calm under that, because we just have to take it match by match. Especially also with the calendar we have and with that we try to put the right pawns down every time. We have to look at freshness, mental freshness, and we try to make the best choices. At the moment we are in a flow and we try to keep that up for as long as possible. We saw during the warm-up that several guys were a bit tired, so we tried to take the pace out of the game and try to keep some ball possession from the back. The ball pace was too slow, but you know they are very strong in quick changeovers. So if we had to make it a switching game, we were going to have a much harder time with it than sometimes keeping the ball a little bit longer and knitting a little bit more. Unlike other weeks, that was the case today, but we know at what points they are dangerous. On that front, we tried to take that sting out of their game a little bit," concluded a satisfied Nicky Hayen. (TM)