Hans Vanaken: “Unfortunately this happens to us too often”
Blauw-Zwart lost 2-1 against Molde, due to a goal at the very end of the match.
A visibly disappointed Hans Vanaken looked back on the match. “It’s a shame, another goal in the last minutes. Something like that shouldn’t happen, but we’ve said that so many times this season. 1-1 would not have been a bad starting position. After our goal you think it’s okay, but then you run into that one counter again. They shouldn’t be able to score so easily from that deep ball. Suddenly they are two against one, so something is wrong.”
It is yet another goal conceded at the end of the match. “We have to look at the images and see where things are going wrong. It is good that we want to attack, but we must also keep in mind that we are sufficiently armed if we lose the ball.” “We are in a difficult situation right now,” he continued. “We have to start somewhere to turn the tide, but it is difficult to pinpoint an exact cause because it happens to us too often. Like I said: we’re going to be two against one on a counter and that really shouldn’t happen.”
“Our first half was really not good. We didn’t put enough pressure, which made it easier for them to play football. In the second half we were more dangerous and entered their penalty area more.”
Next week there will be the return in the Jan Breydel Stadium. “It is not over yet. We showed in the second half that we are better, but we have to learn from that moment of transition. Next week, with the crowd behind us, we should be able to turn it around and qualify,” the captain concluded, disappointed but combative. (EV)
Maxim De Cuyper: “This is hitting hard”
After the 2-1 loss in and against Molde, Maxim De Cuyper spoke to the press quite upset. “This defeat hits me pretty hard, so I can’t be happy about this at all and I am standing here with a heavy feeling of shit,” the Bruges youth product opens his story. “It’s almost impossible to understand, because the same thing keeps happening to us week after week. Too much has happened in that area in recent weeks. With a few minutes left on the clock you just have to hold on to the 1-1, but the way we still give it away is again very stupid and above all unnecessary. What went wrong? We just discussed an initial analysis in the locker room and apparently a lot went wrong. But once again we cannot keep the ball in the team and we once again run into a razor-sharp counter. Will I take responsibility for conceding that second goal? To some extent yes, because perhaps I was too high up at that stage. It just sucks that we have to keep talking about the same thing.”
Although De Cuyper remains hopeful of further converting Europe. “This is a huge blow, but fortunately there is already the home game against OHL on Sunday, so we don’t have much time to worry about what happened tonight. And yes, there is the return next week and we still have to put things right. With the support of our supporters, we have to go all out from the first minute and so nothing has been lost yet.” (MV)
Ronny Deila: “This frustrates me very much”
Coach Deila was of course also a disappointed coach after the defeat at the end of the match.
“I thought we had good control of the game until that 92nd minute, so this makes it extremely frustrating,” the coach began his analysis. “1-1 against Molde was a good result to take with us to Bruges, but then we make it difficult for ourselves again. That goal in the last minutes frustrates me very much. We have discussed this so much and I can no longer say how much we have already been through situations like this, because it happens so often in the last few weeks. If you focus on it too much, it might creep into your head. However, in the previous matches we were more balanced and had more players than the opponent in our box. Today, however, we were naive and stupid by going forward with too many players. We had to talk more and organize ourselves better to get back in balance and keep that 1-1. However, we conceded an easy counter with all the consequences that entails. It is immature and all too often we lose the match in the last minutes. We were always in control of the match when this happened. That must change urgently, because this cannot continue to happen. I made some substitutions in the second half and we were in control of the match. We also scored the equalizer, so I don’t agree with the statement that the substitutions didn’t work out well. We also have to respect the opponent, because we are playing in a European competition. It’s not that easy to win against these types of teams and Legia Warsaw was a good example of that recently. So we have to be humble and say that 1-1 was a good result and then we were in a good starting position for the return match. Now we have made it more difficult for ourselves, but we still have a good chance of advancing. Now I hope that after tonight we can convert this feeling into energy for the second leg and thus advance to the quarter-finals. In any case, I expected it to be an even match tonight, because Molde is a difficult team to play against. In two games we should indeed be stronger than this team and I strongly believe in that. I thought we were weak in possession of the ball in the first half. The first goal was conceded after we lost the ball and they launched a quick counter-attack. That was the biggest problem in the first half. We couldn’t keep the ball and do nothing offensively. In the second half we had more of the ball and were able to play more in their half. We didn’t create many big chances, but we did get closer and closer. At the end we got that penalty and we were able to equalize. In the second half we had control and we grew in the match. I can’t say anything about the efforts, but it’s more about being daring with the ball and taking more risks. It was better in the second half, but I certainly agree with the supporters that they are disappointed that we still lose here. The result is not good enough, because it should have ended 1-1 here. We have to be much more clinical, disciplined and organized in these moments. I am once again taking responsibility for this and that frustrates me enormously and makes me angry. It has now happened again and now we have to do something about it,” concludes the Blauw-Zwart coach. (TM)