S. Vrevenas: "We are once again waiting for a new adventure"

2024-08-06 08:18 © fcpanevezys.lt

The football club "Panevėžys" will test its strength in the Europa League qualifying matches on Tuesday. In the third round, the Panevėžys players will play their first match against the Tel Aviv "Maccabi" players at the Vilnius LFF Stadium.

This weekend, "Panevėžys" did not play in the "TOPsport A League" matches and had time to take a breather after the trip to Białystok. Before the training session, in a press conference, coach Stijn Vreven stated that he trusts his players and is looking forward to a new challenge.

"We are again looking forward to a new adventure – the Europa League. We were successful in the Champions League by reaching the next round. Our situation wasn’t bad in the first match against HJK, in the second match "Jagiellonia" showed that they are better. We are expecting a strong opponent. Tel Aviv "Maccabi" is very strong and confident with the ball, with good players. This is a challenge for us, but as always, we believe in our possibilities and the idea of football; I trust my players a lot. We will see what we can do. I think we can be successful playing against such a team, when everything is good, we are psychologically, physically, and tactically prepared and playing with character. This is a good opponent, not without reason becoming the champion of Israel. As I said, we believe in our style, idea, and players. We are looking forward to it," said S. Vreven in an interview with fk-panevezys.lt.

The football specialist from Belgium also answered a question about the newcomer Amine Benchaib, who may debut in the upcoming matches.

"For me, it is a huge advantage that I have worked with Amine Benchaib at the Belgian club "Lokeren". We have a good connection; he is a player who can play in several positions. We have problems with the number of players; before his arrival, we only had two real midfielders – Nicolas Gorobsov and Jovan Čadženović. I am happy that he is here; he can play as a midfielder, as a 'number ten', and from the flanks," said the head coach of "Panevėžys." "He is versatile, and it is good for the coach to have such players who can play in more than one position. I am happy that he is here. He can help the team with his running skills, his mentality; he is also a player who controls the ball well and is technical. This will give me more options everywhere, we can attack more, we have more options to play in a different system, I am happy that he is here."

Captain Linas Klimavičius added that the team is facing the confrontation with good emotions: "We are all looking forward to these matches; we are psychologically prepared, and we are facing a really strong opponent, but there are no insurmountable challenges, and we will really do our best with everything we have for today and we really want to have a positive result after the first match."

The meeting between the champions of Lithuania and Israel will take place at the LFF Stadium on August 6, Tuesday. The match will start at 19:30.