S. Vrevenas: "In football, everything is possible."

2024-07-23 12:51 © fcpanevezys.lt

The football club "Panevėžys" welcomes the second stage of the UEFA Champions League qualifying matches, where they will face the strongest team from last season's Polish league, Białystok's "Jagiellonia".

Before the guests' training at the "Aukštaitija" stadium, the strategists of both teams shared their insights. In the first comment, "Panevėžys" coach Stijn Vreven highlighted that his team faces an even stronger opponent than the one they played against previously.

"We are excited again, just like before the first stage when playing against HJK. We were looking forward to the matches, moving on to the second stage against an opponent, with all due respect, possibly twice as strong as HJK. It's interesting for us as a club, for the staff, and for the players to see if we can compete with such teams. "Jagiellonia" is the strongest team in Poland; they play very well and have good Polish and foreign players, especially strong players from Spain and Portugal. They feel comfortable with the ball, play very offensively, and have a quite similar identity to us – they want to have the ball and press high. This is football; we might not win because there are limits, but there are none before the matches start.

We are looking forward to the matches; we will play to win. We hope it will be a good game and that we will continue to improve, as we have been doing in recent weeks, not just in the Champions League but also against the strongest league rivals – "Hegelmann" and "Kauno Žalgiris" – where we played good football technically. We need to learn to be more useful. To win a match with just one chance, you need to score two goals. They will not give us many chances; we need to take everything we can. There also needs to be a fight – we have to run, jump, sprint, run forward and back, and after 95 minutes, have a result. I believe in my players; I believe we have a plan, I believe in the desire and faith. In football, everything is possible," Stijn Vreven told the fk-panevezys.lt website.

The Belgian specialist also answered a question regarding the team's lineup for Tuesday: "Before the match against "Kauno Žalgiris", we had two injured players – Jeffrey Sarpong was not 100% ready, and Ernestas Veliulis was also out. They will be ready for the match. Only Ariagner Smith and Kwadwo Asamoah are out of the squad. Domantas Vaičekauskas is returning to training, so he will be ready for the upcoming matches. We can't complain about healthy players."

"Jagiellonia" returned to international competitions after a six-year hiatus and will participate for the first time as the national champion. The team's strategist Adrian Siemieniec did not hide his excitement before such a match.

"It's a very exciting moment for all of us, especially for me. I understand that it’s important for the whole club, the fans, and the players. Considering where we were not long ago, and what is coming – it's obviously a big deal that we are starting our Champions League campaigns. Sometimes I have to remind myself a few times in my head what happened last season, and this is a sweet consequence of that. We are happy with the place we are in, we appreciate this moment, and we will do everything to show ourselves in the best light and fight for our dreams. We know it won’t be easy if we want to play in some UEFA group stage – we are talking about the most elite competitions – the Champions League. We cannot expect that the steps up to that point will be easy; we don’t anticipate that, of course, we are ready for hard fights and two tough matches. We will think about what can happen in Białystok and prepare for what will happen in Panevėžys. This is a very important match that will show the path that both teams will take in the second match. We came very excited but at the same time calm and confident in ourselves, with respect for the opponent but without fear from our side. We strongly believe that we will perform well and achieve a result."

The match between the champions of Lithuania and Poland will take place on July 23rd, Tuesday. The match at the "Aukštaitija" stadium will start at 18:30, and the duel will be broadcast live on the DELFI TV channel.