With Franjo Ivanovic as a superscorer, the Union enjoys itself and jumps into the Top 6 with both feet

As in the 1-0 against Nice, he first showed opportunism on his team’s first two goals. The Union deservedly led 2-0 after a largely dominated first period and this has not happened to them so often this season.

The scorer of the week stunned KV with a third goal of a completely different kind. Well launched by Promise David, with whom he formed a formidable duo, Ivanovic overtook Vuskovic, to release a marvelous lob from the left (3-0, 53rd). Bos would make it 3-1 two minutes later to punish one of the Brussels defensive approximations, but that would never really shake the Union, sheltered thanks to their scorer of the moment.

“What an incredible feeling to score my first hat-trick for the Union”congratulates Ivanovic, all smiles, the match ball under his foot. As tradition dictates after a hat-trick, he had it signed by his teammates and was able to take it home. “Where am I going to store it? I don’t know yet… in any case, I’ll probably sleep with him tonight.”he laughs, before returning to this lob full of composure. “I had practiced a lot to perform this gesture in front of the goalkeeper. Probably I have more confidence than I did a few weeks ago, too, which is why I tried it.”

Which had not been the case during these two months when he had no longer found the path to the goal: “Sometimes it’s harder, sometimes easier. It was complicated in the previous weeks, but it’s easier now. But that’s what I’m here for: to score. I remained calm (Editor’s note: when he wasn’t scoring)I trained the same way as before”he assures.

His trainer is more nuanced and does not hide the fact that he had to put his youngster back on the right path: “We worked to remove the psychological pressure from the attacker who absolutely wants to score. He wasn’t scoring anymore and wanted to pull the cover a bit, overdo it. We refocused everything and worked collectively. And the goals came by themselves.”

“Ivanogoal” received a standing ovation. “He has five goals in a few days; his confidence is growing”continues Pocognoli. “It’s up to him to manage these moments of excitement. I will have to make sure that he keeps his feet on the ground and that, on Wednesday, he is focused on the match in Bruges. We know how things are going; when you’re young, you take the ball home and watch it for two weeks. We’ll have to dive right back into it.”

And take advantage of the wave for the arrival of Bruges, ideally.