Ivan Leko saw the bright side of things after Standard qualified, via extra time, for the 1/8 finals of the Belgian Cup. The Croatian coach saw what he wanted to see: a team that created a lot of chances. The finish still needs to be improved.
Standard caused a big scare on Wednesday evening. Trailing after half an hour of play against Lyra-Lierse, the Rouches needed extra time to overcome the resident team of D1 VFV. Ivan Leko, after the game, was nevertheless generally satisfied.
“A Cup match is always close, that’s why we love them and why we love football. We started the match well, we scored, then two shots from them came from individual errors, It’s football. We had the right reaction to quickly come back to 2-2 and we had enough chances to score a lot of goals.”
We hoped that the attackers could gain confidence.”
“Defensively, we had a good match. We controlled well against an opponent with good organization, difficult to play and with good counter-attacks. It’s a good result, although we hoped to have it easier, than our attackers could gain confidence, but that was not the case. The main thing remains victory and qualification.”
Not everything is to be thrown away in the Standard’s service
In midfield, the Croatian coach saw two players gain valuable points: Sotiris Alexandropoulos, author of a good overall performance for his first start, and Léandre Kuavita, author of a goal, an assist and ‘a full match. A clear reason for satisfaction for Leko.
“I’m very happy overall, because the hardest thing is to create chances. If you don’t create, you won’t be able to score, but if you create chances, it means you’re on the right path. I I would also like my players to score two goals in five shots, but that will come through hard work.”
