Casper Nielsen: “We kept running and fighting for one another” | OneFootball

Club stuck to its game plan, keeping Leverkusen at bay in the first half. The German side had all the trouble in the world applying pressure, and was only able to push forward in the second half, but fortunately for Casper Nielsen's Club Brugge, the hosts kept it tight.

"It's not really sinking in just yet; I have featured in a Champions League game, and we won it 1-0. I'm sure that penny will have dropped come Thursday morning. It was hard work, though. We put in a great first half performance, and we felt that they were used to a different pace of football. In the second half, we were running out of juice because we were working so hard to claim that win. I'm just so proud of the lads. The way we worked together, we kept running and fighting for one another. Of course, there is still room for improvement, and we will take those learning moments towards our next games. Plenty of positive about the game; we could have made it 2-0 if only we were a bit sharper. Our game plan was excellent, particularly in the first half. Leverkusen was surprised with how we played. They had trouble putting pressure and played a waiting game. There are still plenty we can learn from our second half, though."

On Saturday, another Belgian mission awaits. "Before we can board the plane to Porto, there's still the Belgian league awaiting in Seraing. That'll be tough; we need to fully recover, and reaim our focus on that other game. Playing in Bruges, you know the league is vital. We take it one game at a time. We will be enjoying this win tonight, but tomorrow there's our next game. We keep on working on a week by week basis. There's still a lot we can improve on, we are still a long way from our top. It takes some time, but we are grabbing things out of every game." (KN)