Brian Riemer & Zeno Debast spoke to the press in Razgrad before the game against Ludogorets
RSC Anderlecht traveled to Razgrad, Bulgaria, with a squad of 23 players to take on Ludogorets in the knockout play-off round of the Conference League. Only Francis Amuzu stayed in Belgium out of precaution. Brian Riemer & Zeno Debast spoke to the press in the Huvepharma Arena in Razgrad.
“For me, tomorrow is a day of joy”, said coach Brian Riemer. “I think the team has done a great effort to bring itself in this position. Anytime you manage to qualify after a group stage competition in Europe, you should consider that as a good performance. It’s one of these games where you kind of have a free ticket to go out and show what you’re all about and demonstrate your European and international ambitions. It’s a totally different competition, so you won’t hear me say that this game is not as important as the one that we’ll be playing on Sunday away at Kortrijk. We’ll do everything we can to proceed.”
In terms of a possible rotation in the starting eleven, coach Riemer pressed on the tactical flexibility of the squad. “Like we’ve done in all the other games, me and the coaching staff will focus on the tactics for this specific game, we’ve analyzed the opponent in order to find the most suitable players for the job. But I can assure you that my head is only with this game and nowhere else. Ludogorets is a very good football playing team. They want to play out from the back and they have some good individual profiles offensively. They’ve got some strength and pace in the team as well and some clever football players that are capable of turning up the tempo in small areas. It’s definitely a team that likes to have the ball and likes to play an offensive type of football.”
Zeno Debast also joined the press conference. Our young defender ‘Made in Neerpede’ continues to deliver solid performances in defense and is one of the youngest players in Europe to be playing his 40th game of the season already this weekend. "Whether I feel fatigued already? Sometimes yes, because there are just a lot of games, but we have all possible facilities at Anderlecht and a fantastic staff that handles all that extremely well and takes good care of us."
"This match is another good learning moment for me personally, to gain experience again. Whether Jan Vertonghen is important in my development? Of course, Jan is important not only for me but for the whole team. He is a real leader on and off the pitch and always tries to make the team better in a positive way."
