Luzon hails Standard despite Feyenoord loss
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Article summary
Guy Luzon was bullish in defeat, labelling R. Standard de Liège's reverse at Feyenoord "one of our best games this season" as the hosts quietly celebrated a job well done.
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Article body
• Guy Luzon believes Standard produced one of their best performances this term
• Eiji Kawashima says Standard have gained confidence despite loss
• Sven van Beek reveals his goal came from a set-piece routine
• Fred Rutten happy with the "European level" football his Feyenoord side played
• Next games: Rijeka v Feyenoord; Standard v Sevilla (23 October)
Guy Luzon, Standard coach
Ahead of the game we promised each other that we would give 100% and we did play as a team for the full 90 minutes in an organised manner. If you look at our performance tonight, then I think it was one of our best games this season. Tonight we truly played at the same high level as Feyenoord.
Eiji Kawashima, Standard goalkeeper
We played well, I think, and we also created our share of chances. But this is the Europa League and we know these are difficult matches. The passion we showed was good, and it's something we like to see. We have some more difficult matches ahead. It will be hard, but we also gained some confidence today to try and win those upcoming games.
Sven van Beek, Feyenoord defender
We started well. We circulated the ball and had more possession than our opponents. We created a lot of chances as well, but the ball didn’t want to go in during the first half.
We started the second half well. We've practiced those throw-ins all week, because we wanted to make use of those moments. I received the ball – headed it into the ground – the ball bounced over everyone and it went in. After that we played a bit too defensively, which was a shame I think. We made it hard on ourselves.
Fred Rutten, Feyenoord coach
Tonight we played the football that is required at this European level. We showed very good game. We had a lot more possession in the first half, I think, and we created a few chances. You hope you can score in those moments, but the goal finally came in the second half.
Standard responded quickly and that affected our confidence a little bit; but the feeling of possibility came back after we made our substitutions. Elvis [Manu] missed his first chances, but finally scored, so I am happy about tonight. Our aim was to stay alive in this group, and so we succeeded.
