Preud'homme praises 'great' Twente display
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
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FC Twente coach Michel Preud'homme could not hide his delight after seeing his team register their first UEFA Champions League win in style thanks to two late goals at SV Werder Bremen.
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FC Twente coach Michel Preud'homme hailed "a great team performance" after the Dutch titleholders boosted their qualification hopes by clinching a first ever UEFA Champions League win at SV Werder Bremen. The Bundesliga outfit, meanwhile, are still without a victory in Group A and their coach Thomas Schaaf admitted they must now "produce something special" to progress.
Thomas Schaaf, Bremen coach
We are very disappointed because, we wanted to win this match. It was important for me to have some words with my players alone in the dressing room after the game. I feel they tried hard to improve on the performance against 1. FC Nürnberg [on Saturday], but we just aren't scoring goals at the moment and we are conceding chances to our opponents.
We continue to make a lot of mistakes. Now we need to take stock and come back stronger. We need to learn from our mistakes. We all want to be successful and I still think we will be. There are still two games to play, and thanks to the other result in the group tonight, all four teams are close. We need to pull off something special but why shouldn't it happen? We have a lot of potential.
Michel Preud'homme, Twente coach
We briefed our players on the different systems that Bremen could adopt, including 4-4-2. As soon as we saw they were going to play like that we adjusted our own system, moving to three at the back. We were well organised from the start and created a lot of chances. At half-time, I simply told my players to carry on playing the same way because I felt sure we would score eventually if we continued to create chances.
Bremen didn't change anything, we kept on going, and we secured a deserved win. I have congratulated my players but I also told them they should have scored more. It was a great team performance when you consider all the players we had out and the youngsters who had to come in. Everyone worked extremely hard. Our aim is to be playing European football after the winter so it was important to get a result.
