Hannover captain sees Standard flagging

Skipper Steve Cherundolo told UEFA.com that Hannover 96 need to reproduce the best parts of their first-leg display in next week's round of 16 return match to pip R. Standard de Liège to a place in the quarter-finals.

The United States defender led the Bundesliga club to a 2-2 draw in Belgium that leaves Mirko Slomka's men handily placed to reach the last eight, even if Cherundolo also warned that Hannover "still have work to do" on home soil. With his side having led 2-1 after being 1-0 down, Standard captain Jelle Van Damme was disappointed with the draw, yet told UEFA.com his team have "nothing to lose" in northern Germany next Thursday.

Steve Cherundolo, Hannover defender
With their fans behind them, and their athletic, pacy forwards and wide players, they're very dangerous. We hurt them with our set pieces and some nice combination play in midfield and out wide. Hopefully we'll see more of that next week. We deserved a draw and we're happy with the result. They expended a lot of energy in the first half trying to put us under pressure, and we did a much better job of keeping the ball in the second half. We made them work in their half of the pitch, which enabled us to ease the pressure on ourselves a little.

It's a good position to be in, but we still have a lot of work to do. Standard have a lot of experience and they've been in this position before – we haven't. But with our fantastic fans behind us, we can grind out another result and move this European party on.

Konstantin Rausch, Hannover midfielder
It's a good result for us. They have to come to our place now and it's a great position for us to be in in terms of going through to the next round. We played well in the second half. They had a chance to go in front again, but I think a draw was a fair result. I think we can all have belief in our chances of reaching the quarter-finals. We gave everything today to get a result and we have our destiny in our own hands.

Jelle Van Damme, Standard defender
The first half was good, with moments when we were very good. We tried to maintain that in the second half but we didn't manage to do that even if we didn't play badly. It was a shame we conceded the second goal but even so, we tried to score a third in the second half yet didn't manage to do so. I think everyone was ready and hit the ground running from the first whistle. You need everyone at 100% to win in the Europa League. We simply have to score there. We have nothing to lose.

William Vainqueur, Standard forward
It's not the result we were looking for but nothing has been decided. We have destiny in our own hands. We're going there to win and we can do it, but we have to be more consistent at the back. We knew we could score goals. We just lacked a bit of luck to score a third. We must not stop here, we still have work to do. We have to go to Hannover and win to stay in the competition. When they scored the second, they tried to close things down and that slowed us down. We're going to Germany to attack and to win the match – there's no other option.