RSC Anderlecht will take on AZ Alkmaar in the return game of the quarter finals of the UEFA Europa Conference League. Defending a 2-0 lead, Sporting has a good chance of qualifying for the semi-finals. Brian Riemer and Anders Dreyer took a seat in the press room of the AFAS Stadium on Wednesday.
Brian Riemer traveled with an almost fully fit squad to Alkmaar on Wednesday. Only Benito Raman stayed behind in Brussels with a slight discomfort in training. With a 2-0 lead in the first leg, the coach was asked if he would choose a more defensive approach for the return leg.
“No. I’m convinced that our style of play and the identity that we have forged in the last few months is the soul of the team. I believe that we should stick to what we’re good at to achieve a good result. So I can tell you already that we will come out tomorrow as we would normally do. Of course we’re aware of the result from the first leg, like we also would be when leading 2-0 at half-time, but we will not change the tactics or get into a more defensive mode. After the loss in Genk, there were obviously elements that we were not happy with. But there’s also some positives, like a solid first half where we easily could have been up 1-2 instead of trailing 2-1. We took the things out of the game that we can learn from, and we’ll use that in the game tomorrow.”
Anders Dreyer accompanied the coach in the press room. “We have to attack the game as usual. If we start defending our goal more than we’re used to, then suddenly you start doing things that you’re not used to and you never know what can happen. Apart from the game in Genk, where we were punished in a few moments of the game, we’ve been solid over the past few months in the defensive aspects. So there’s no need to change everything up. We have to stay true to our soul and identity. In the first leg, we showed that we can achieve something amazing together, we really felt that that was a strong performance. We play every game like it’s a final.”
