Refaelov hails Club Brugge's 'big step'
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Article summary
Club Brugge KV midfielder Lior Refaelov said it was a "great feeling" to score such a fine goal in the 3-1 win against Aalborg BK, who were gracious in defeat.
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Article body
• Lior Refaelov says it was a "great feeling" to score from long range against AaB
• Goalscorer adds that Club Brugge took a "big step" towards last 16 with 3-1 win
• AaB's Nicklas Helenius concedes the Belgian side are "a better team"
• The second leg is next Thursday in Belgium, with the last 16 draw the following day
Lior Refaelov, Club Brugge midfielder
We had a lot of confidence after scoring the first goal. I'm always happy to score myself, of course, and a great goal like this makes it even better. I didn't want to run with the ball so I took a chance as I saw the keeper was standing on the other side of the goal. I thought it was going wide for a second, but when it went in it was a great feeling.
In the second half, we got the third goal which we are very happy about. It's always important for this team to achieve its ambitions and we took a big step towards that today. Of course AaB still have a chance – anything can happen – but we did very well today.
Nicklas Helenius, AaB forward
We are disappointed but have to admit that we faced a better team. Club Brugge were better than us and they would be nine out of ten times. We had problems keeping up with them for most parts of the game, even though we performed better in the second half.
We are not happy about our first half. We couldn't find the right pace when we had the ball and lost possession too often. We were a little surprised that they played with five defenders, but we changed a couple of things before the second half.
We couldn't just attack in the second half because they are so good at counterattacking quickly, so we had to stay focused and stick to our original tactics. We even tried to add more power and defensive strength by bringing on Thomas Augustinussen.
Now we have to analyse the game and see what to do differently in the second match. It's unlikely that we will qualify, but we still have to go down there and provide resistance. If we go to Belgium and play a bad match it will stay in our mind for a long time, so we must do well.
