Marko Nikolic: The message from the game is that you never give up

The two managers spoke to the media shortly after the final whistle. 

Marko Nikolic:

I feel that we deserved this win today. We did not play the way we should have for the first 10-15 minutes, and thoughts were on the play off's, but this is not acceptable against such opponents - especially against a well organised Debrecen side. We then played well and created several chances. Perhaps we had 6 or 7 very good chances and we also moved the ball around well. We kept the opponents under pressure and our defending was also fine. There was one counter attack from which Debrecen could have scored. There are times when a team that is attacking can switch off for a moment and lose a game. However, we were always in control and were fine at the back and middle, which is never wasy when you have so many attacking players. This was a very important win and the message from the game is that you never give up! Another important is that this was the third game that we kept a clean sheet. We played with intelligence and with tactical discipline. This team is slowly turning into a real fighting side where the players each fight for the Vidi shirt in each game. I would like to congratulate my players and thank the supporters who came out today and were behind us. We can now start to focus on the play off. I still feel that both sides have a 50-50% chance of going through. Partizan have more international experience as they have made it through to a group stage in 9 of the last 12 seasons. That happened once with me as their manager. I have not spoken to anyone back at home, but I beleive that the pressure on them is bigger. We would like to continue our dream and make it through to the group stage. 

Herczeg András:

Our opponents were generally better and deserved to win the game. Our game was OK in the first half, but Vidi put us under great pressure in the second period. Naturally we could have done something about this, as we need to be able to control the ball and pass into good areas, which we did not manage today. Of course I am upset with the way the match ended as we could have twice stopped the ball leading up to the penalty. It is not an easy situation for us but I would like to congratulate Vidi and wish them the best in their game against Partizan.

Author: David Rechnitzer

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