Hancko happy Feyenoord proved doubters wrong and admits Theo’s red card was ‘a big favour’ | OneFootball

Feyenoord captain David Hancko has admitted that his side faced a ‘difficult’ task until Theo Hernandez gave them a helping hand.

You can forgive Feyenoord for being in dreamland after they pulled off an upset in the play-off round of the Champions League, beating Milan 2-1 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw at San Siro last night.

The Dutch side were rattled inside a minute when Santiago Gimenez was on hand to level the tie with a finish from close range after Malick Thiaw’s header back across goal.

However, Theo Hernandez was shown red for two silly yellow cards early in the second half, and that gave Feyenoord belief. Julian Carranza equalised on the night with a header, to send the Rotterdam club through to the last 16 where Arsenal or Inter await.

Hancko spoke to reporters and to CBS Sports after the game to reveal his emotions after being named the Man of the Match, and his comments were relayed by Calciomercato.com.

“It’s fantastic and I’m really happy with what we did. Nobody expected us to go through, especially in this stadium. It was difficult, especially after the goal at the beginning. We thank our fans, they were fantastic. And our young guys,” he said.

“It wasn’t easy, we knew it would be very tough for us. We wanted to score, but we had to change our game plan. In the end we managed to do something incredible. I look at Leao, Pulisic, Felix, Walker… it’s incredible to have overcome them.”

“Theo’s red card? It definitely did us a big favour. We were able to take the initiative and it was difficult for them, the numerical superiority helped us. In the end, a fantastic goal arrived.”

How happy are you?

“It’s amazing, nobody was thinking that we could go through and it’s something amazing. When you look at our travelling squad, we have so many injured players and so I’m so happy and for sure it’s one of my biggest achievements in my career so far.”

What is the next target for Feyenoord?

“We have a lot of work in the Eredivisie because we are not so good in the Eredivisie this season, so for sure we need to fight for the European places in the league.

“Again a big two matches in the Champions League, for me especially the Champions League is something special so I’m really proud of what we did tonight and that we got through.”