Lens gives PSV reason to believe
Friday, March 18, 2011
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Jeremain Lens said PSV Eindhoven will be "confident no matter who we face" after scoring the goal that knocked out Rangers FC and earned the Eredivisie leaders a quarter-final place.
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PSV Eindhoven forward Jeremain Lens believes there is still a long way to go before the Eredivisie leaders can start to dream of a UEFA Europa League final appearance.
The 23-year-old added the finishing touch to a sublime passing move that spanned most of the pitch for the decisive goal to eliminate Rangers FC in a tense last-16 tie 1-0 on aggregate. However, Lens is refusing to take further progress in the competition for granted and he expects another stern test in the quarter-final.
"I was very happy to score the winning goal," the Dutch international told UEFA.com. "The goal came at a great moment, but even after that we created some really good chances. It wasn't that great in the second half as it became more physical. I hope we get a good opponent in the next round but we are confident no matter who we face. I don't want to look so far ahead to say we can win it because we have to take care of the next opponent first. Maybe after then, we can talk about our chances."
His PSV and national team colleague, Erik Pieters, meanwhile, insisted the timing of the 14th-minute goal had a massive bearing on the outcome of the match. "It made it much easier to score earlier in the game and then they had to come out which gave us more space to play. We had a very good first half and it was too bad we didn't score twice, but we are glad to be through to the next round," he said. "Perhaps we made a mistake in the second half by not playing football because we allowed Rangers to come forward and get into dangerous positions."
Rangers full-back Steven Whittaker expressed his disappointment at losing a goal so early on, a week after keeping PSV in check with relative ease in Eindhoven. "The aim was to go through and we had the draw coming here to Ibrox, but they got the early goal and our first-half performance wasn't great," he said. "We have done well in Europe this season, both in the Champions League and the Europa League. PSV are a good side and play good passing football so good luck to them in the next stage."
