Twente Enschede’s coach Steve McLaren admitted a clear defeat. “We have lost here against a top international team. A team that we maybe surprised last week, which did...
Twente Enschede’s coach Steve McLaren admitted a clear defeat. “We have lost here against a top international team. A team that we maybe surprised last week, which did...
Twente Enschede’s coach Steve McLaren admitted a clear defeat. "We have lost here against a top international team. A team that we maybe surprised last week, which did not let them get surprised today," said McLaren. The match proved just the opposite. "We lost the game in the first 20 minutes. We were not as robust as Bremen, we had a lot of turnovers," said the Twente coach. The presence of the Green-Whites had a big impact on that. "We did quite a bit right today. We got going right away, were active, and took over the game," said Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf, whose players understood the game plan. "The coach prepared us so that we could score three or four goals. We didn’t want to feel our way into the game. We knew that if the goal fell, then the second and third would follow," said Marko Marin.
"We wanted to make right our showing in Enschede. I believe that Twente were a little bit surprised because they are not used to being put under so much pressure in the Dutch league," said Peter Niemeyer. Manager Klaus Allofs indicated that it was not matter of course that Bremen would have a perfect Europa League evening. "That was not an easy situation. We could not play too crazy, we had to remain patient. We could have scored the 1-0 in the 89th minute. We had to play very concentrated," said Allofs. And it was clear how quick things could change with the goal allowed. "There was a bit of uncertainty because we knew that Twente would have advanced with the next goal," said Allofs.
Twente coach McLaren said the situation between the 57th and 58th minutes was the final knockout of his team. "At that stage we were back in the game and it would have been very interesting if the second goal had fell. But at the other end, Bremen scored the goal. And the game was dead with that," said McLaren.
