Antwerp - Club: reactions

Hans Vanaken: "Thoroughly deserved 0-3 lead"

In the end things got tense, but Blauw-Zwart did manage to take all three points home. Captain Hans Vanaken saw that Club made things needlessly complicated.

"It got a bit nervy towards the end, but we managed to see it through and take all three points from the game at the Bosuil. In all honesty, it was down to us making it more difficult than it should've been. We were cruising for 60, 65 minutes. We were really dominant, passing the ball around well, creating chances. At that point, the 0-3 lead was fully deserved. But maybe we got a bit too comfortable, and that led to a loss of focus. We gave away a couple of sloppy passes, lost the ball unnecessarily a few times. That's something we need to learn from. It should really already have been all over towards the end."

In the regular season, we've seen things slip away in those final moments before. "It's not that it creeps into your head, but you’re aware of it. We need to be better in that area. We shouldn’t be on edge in those last minutes after having dominated the first hour. Next week we face Genk, but every game is crucial in these play-offs. There's talk of the top three being much stronger than the rest, but the others still want to take points and they'll have a say in the title race. For example, today could have easily ended in an unnecessary draw or even worse. The games against Genk are obviously important, but if the play-offs have taught us anything, it’s that a bad result doesn’t define the season. There are still eight games left."

Ardon Jashari: “Great goal"

With another goal to his tally, Ardon Jashari once again played an important role in this afternoon's win, earning him the "Man of the Match" trophy.

"The first half was fairly easy for us, but it was very tough in the second. We played great before the break, scored three, and showed what we're capable off on and off the ball. That we struggled in the second half was mainly our own fault because we made individuals errors. With Antwerp's home support, you just know it's going to be hard to see out the game."

Jashari tapped home the second goal into the far corner after a good forward rush. "It was a great goal. I knew I had started my run on my own half, so I was pretty sure I wasn't offside. It was a tight angle, because of the defender and goalkeeper's pressure, so I knew I had to play the ball very close past the goalkeeper. And it worked out great. Today we should have scored four of five goals, but we definitely didn't have to allow Antwerp to fight their way back into the game by giving away easy goals. Next week there's the fixture against Genk. It's a very important match, but we still have a lot of matches to go. Every side has its qualities, so every match will be tough."

Nicky Hayen: "Let the opponent get back into the game"

Club Brugge played a strong first half, but it got a bit nerve-wracking in the second half as it took some fight to secure the win. Coach Hayen acknowledged his side had made things harder for themselves.

"We unfortunately let the opponent get back into the game. We know how things can change here, we've seen it before, so that's something we absolutely didn’t want to happen. And of course, that leads to a 'cup tie' right up until the final whistle. We need to keep our focus every single second of the game. The chance to make it 4-0, we should’ve finished that off. Instead, we tried to be too cute, too clever with it. You’ve got to be clinical there, because if you don’t, you give them hope. And at 3-1, anything can happen, we've seen it before, like in Atalanta where we missed a penalty. And today Antwerp scored the 2-3 with fifiteen minutes left. and then they score 2-3 here with 15 minutes left. You know then that's more likely that they will score a third than we a fourth."

"We rewarded ourselves with a good performance, we made them chase the ball, but with some sloppy mistakes on our part, we let them back into it. That cost us more energy than we should have had to use. But, let’s stay positive – we’ve played two games in the play-offs and taken six points from six, which was our target, and we’ve achieved that. We were strong for the first 60 minutes last week and again today, and we need to carry that forward. It’s the play-offs, and every mistake gets punished, so we can't afford for that to happen too often."

"Next week, we face Genk in a direct showdown. Every game is crucial, and today proved that. Even when you're 3-0 up, it doesn’t take much for the game to swing back in their favour. Every match will be different, and if we lose next week, depending on today’s result, the gap could be 7 points, 3 points, or just 1 point. Things change quickly, so we need to stay calm, stay composed, and switch our mindset. We need to play the same game, but just make sure we’re better in that final half hour."