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"What we have achieved with this
team is incredible"
Friday 19 December 2008
NEC experienced it's finest
moment of the club's history on Thursday.
Thanks to a 2-0 victory over Udinese
the club reached the third round of the UEFA Cup.
The fact that it happened to the
expense of Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Zagreb, two teams
of international fame, made it all the more impressive.
"This day will be written
in gold in the books of NEC," said goal keeper
Gabor Babos.
Just how close together victory
and defeat are in football was shown yesterday.
After 45 minutes no one in Nijmegen
believed in the chances of NEC.
The half-time score was 0-0 while
rivals Spartak Moscow were 0-2 up against Tottenham.
"A half-time we said to each
other: 'Okay we can be very proud of what we have done
so far in this tournament. Let's just try and win our
own game and then we will see whether it has been enough
afterwards.' That is what we did and in the end it turned
out to be enough. Incredible. Truly unbelievable what
have achieved with this team," said the delighted
Babos.
"Everyone deserves an enormous
compliment," says the Hungarian shot stopper.
"The players, the technical
staff, management and of course the fans. Our supporters
really were the twelfth man for us. This day can be
entered in gold in the history books of this club."
What made the accomplishments of
NEC even better is that they absolutely deserve to go
through.
"We beat Spartak Moscow and
Udinese and at Dynamo Zagreb we were 2-1 up minutes
from the end. We lost that match totally unnecessary.
Only against Tottenham we were without chance, but all
in all it is fully justified that we progress."
"And then to think that a
year ago we were bottom of the table in the Eredivisie,"
the keeper says.
"That only show how beautiful
and bizarre sport is. This night was just another example.
Ahead of the game you think of all possible scenarios
for our game and that of Spartak and after 45 minutes
it's that of a worst case. But still we made it."
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