Coaches delighted about UEFA Cup success

Thursday 02 October 2008

All five Dutch clubs qualified for the next round of the UEFA Cup yesterday.

We gathered some reactions.

FC Twente - McClaren: "Fought together, won together"
Coach Steve McClaren praised the team effort, after FC Twente had knocked out Stade Rennes of the UEFA Cup.

"We fought together, and we won together," the Brit said.

"And that is the only way to be successful in Europe. In the last part of the game we came under huge pressure, but we held on."

McClaren admitted that his team had been a bit lucky.

"Yes, they started a lot more offensive than we had expected. We didn't find to our game until after the break. But we then deserved the goal."

The only goal was scored by - who else? - Blaise N'Kufo.

The Swiss striker was most of all happy that the achievements of last season - winning the play-offs - are continued.

"It's great to stand here knowing that we have reached the group stages," he said.

"Even though this was a great team effort, scoring this goal was dream scenario for me personally."

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Feyenoord - Verbeek: "This victory comes exactly at the right time"
Feyenoord coach Gertjan Verbeek called the qualification of his team a 'statement'.

"The team has shown that they do have potential and quality," he said after his side surprisingly knocked out Swedish league leaders Kalmar FF (1-2 after a 0-1 in Rotterdam).

Verbeek admitted that Feyenoord needed the European success.

"For the team, for the club and for the staff this success comes at exactly the right time. The extra income is of course also more than welcome. We have had a number of set backs in recent months and the performances in the league weren't too good either. Then you can of course pretend to be a big boy and maintain that the team and especially the young players are making progress, but confirmation in the shape of a result is nice to have in these circumstances. And I think we confirmed that we are on the right path."

Verbeek, who cheered briefly but vigorously after the final whistle, was proud of the collective effort of Feyenoord.

"No one failed us today. Every one was good. Yes, our 39-year-old goal keeper making his European debut as well. He's a calm guy, he doesn't shout fire too quickly. That calmness was very useful in the hectic last minutes of the game. He only made one mistake, on their equalizer," Verbeek said jokingly, knowing that Lasse Johansson's screaming shot was absolutely unstoppable.

Skipper Giovanni van Bronckhorst made a big compliment to Feyenoord's youngsters, as Georginio Wijnaldum (17) and Leroy Fer (18) completely dominated their Swedish opponents in midfield.

"These guys will be of great worth to us in the future. It's great to see them doing so well here tonight," said Van Bronckhorst who also praised the team spirit of his side.

"Especially after Sunday's defeat this is just what we needed. We played great as a team, with a lot of spirit. But through stretches of the game we also played well. Of course with the height they have in the team it was close until the end, because they only needed one long cross to fall on the right place. That is why everybody was so over-joyous at the end. Let's hope we can extend this feeling into Sunday's game against NEC."

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NEC Nijmegen - Mario Been 'incredibly proud' of reaching the next round
Words failed NEC coach Mario Been to praise his team after the goalless draw at Rumanian league leaders Dynamo Bucharest.

"I am incredibly proud of this team and this club," Been exulted.

"This is a very young team and it's fantastic to see how they held on tonight against Dynamo Bucharest."

The draw was enough after the 1-0 victory in Nijmegen two weeks ago.

"Now I can prove to these guys that you can not skip a single training or fail one single game. They have achieved something they can be proud of. This should be doping for the next game to these guys," Been said.

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Heerenveen - Sollied sees his plan work
Heerenveen's plan against Vitoria Setubal (5-2) worked out exactly as he had hoped, said coach Trond Sollied.

The idea was to serve the center forwards from the wings, and that was exactly how the first three goals came to part.

"We knew that our chances lay on the wings," Sollied said.

Heerenveen made it into the next round of the UEFA Cup without much trouble, leading 3-0 after 24 minutes.

"After our fourth goal we lost concentration a bit and they could pull two goals back. On top they had two good other chances as well. We were fortunate then. But after the fifth I knew everything was okay."

According to Heerenveen's Norwegian coach the Portuguese goals showed that losing concentration can be deadly in football.

"You can never think 'game over'. You have to stay at it for 90 minutes. But all in all I am very satisfied. The audience saw 7 goals. And that is pretty special in European football."

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Ajax - Huntelaar: "We needed quicker ball circulation"
Ajax' victory over FK Borac was a meager one (2-0), but the team had already decided the tie two weeks ago.

Captain Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was happy they qualified, but not about the way Ajax had performed.

"This wasn't what we had hoped for beforehand," he said politely.

"We didn't create much. With higher ball circulation we would have done better. Now we were looking for an opening too much, but they usually come about by themselves if you play at a higher pace."

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