After the important win at the Duden Park, we gathered reactions from captain Vanaken and coach Hayen.
Hans Vanaken: "0-2 decisive"
After qualifying for the semi-finals of the Conference League, Club Brugge now also managed to grab the points at Union. The three points help Club overtake Union, and narrow the gap with leaders Anderlecht to just two points. A satisfied Hans Vanaken joined us in the Mixed Zone.
"This is a very important victory that comes with enormous joy straight after the final whistle. We knew beforehand that, just like in Greece, it would be a particularly tough task, but partly due to the flow we are now in, we managed the job well," Club's skipper opened his speech. "But just after we lose Vetlesen around the hour with a second yellow card, Meijer heads in that 0-2 and in the end 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 that superb Puertas 1-2, you know it's going to be tough, but even then we hardly gave anything away. Maybe we didn't do enough up front, but keep in mind that Union finished the regular season as leaders. Then you know you have to fight hard here to get the three points and we showed that tonight. This should help us into the rest of these playoffs."
When asked whether Club now should put its full focus on the title, the Limburg legend 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 are left with a very busy schedule and it will be a matter of looking at it one game at a time. 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 on character"
Club booked a very important victory at Union, maintaining its spot in the title race. 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 from our side. However, when you know it was match 55 and after a very tough week and you put this in this performance based on physicality, intensity and survival spirit and survival mode and you pull this off...you can be very satisfied with the team spirit. Everyone really put in everything today and a big kudos 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 a solid organisation and I think we showed that we just wouldn't back down. We also tried to continue 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 down to 10. Obviously that's not a scenario you would hope for, but we stayed well-organized. Obviously the pressure was there and opportunities came, but I'm absolutely satisfied with that commitment."
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 just two points behind and have to go for that title. Innerly that might be the ambition, but if we lose two or three games soon, they will 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 one game at a time. Particularly with the calendar we have and taking that into account 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 warm-up that several guys were a bit tired, so we tried to slow down the pace of the game and tried to maintain possession from the back. 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 in 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)