© Dick Demey
Westerlo –
In the end, everyone was satisfied in Het Kuipje with a 1-1 score. Both trainers too, although they received more questions about the last five minutes of the match, in which the ball was passed around, than about the 90 minutes of battle before.
“A shame,” said AA Gent coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck at the end of the match in Het Kuipje. He targeted his Western colleague Rik De Mil and even referred to his past at Club Brugge.
De Mil responded ‘not amused’ to that allusion. “To be honest, I also felt uncomfortable in stoppage time. But you have to see that in context. We have been fighting an uphill battle here for months to ensure its preservation. They knew that a draw would always save us. The feeling arose on the field that it would have been a good score at 1-1. Those last minutes were in stark contrast to the 90 minutes before, in which a lot of battle was fought by two teams that gave their all. I am especially dissatisfied with the late equalizer, which we took with eleven against ten. For the rest, I cannot blame my players at all, it is wonderful how they started brightly and then kept up with Genk.”
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Vrancken rebounds the ball
Wouter Vrancken rebounded the ball when asked his opinion about injury time. “What should we have done differently? Taking risks ten to eleven and charging forward? We had very cleverly corrected a late deficit with one man less. If you don’t get any pressure from the opponent, you’re not going to kick the ball forward, are you? We’ve shot ourselves in the foot enough times. Besides, fellow trainers in my position would have done the exact same thing. It is very good of my players that they have reached Play-off 1 in a difficult season.”(mg)