LISBON (Reuters) – Feyenoord’s players might not have realised the enormity of their achievement in winning away over Portuguese giants Benfica, the Dutch club’s coach Brian Priske said after their surprise 3-1 Champions League victory in Lisbon on Wednesday.
It was a second successive away win for Feyenoord in the new-look competition and saw them make a strong impression with their flowing style and sharp finishing.
“This is certainly a great victory. I don’t know if we realise how great it is until the heart rate drops a bit and we can enjoy it,” said Priske, who has taken over from Arne Slot as coach at the Rotterdam club.
He struggled initially but has now seen them to four successive wins in all competitions.
“This (Benfica) is a very big club in Europe, with top quality players and a great stadium. This is really a great achievement,” said the Danish-born coach.
Priske was pleased with almost all aspects of Feyenoord’s game, but especially complimentary about the players’ mindset.
“The mentality of these boys is incredible. I am very proud of them, how we kept fighting after they pulled one goal back and were mentally strong enough to pull the match over the line with the 3-1 win.”
Priske said Feyenoord had set out to play compact. “First of all to work hard, suffer, take on some pain when they had the ball, sacrifice yourself for the team and defend really well. And then offensively we also needed to take moments to outnumber them in the midfield, see if we could outplay them and create some danger.
“Credit to the players. I think they showed all the elements that I talk about here. It’s a massive result, but also a performance that shows everyone in our dressing room that we were capable of a lot of things,” the coach added.
Feyenoord’s next Champions League game is on Nov. 6 at home to Austria’s Salzburg, who have lost their opening three games of the group competition.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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