PORTO (Reuters) – All the puzzle pieces fitted together perfectly to hand Belgium’s Club Brugge a surprise Champions League victory at FC Porto on Tuesday, but the winning coach, Carl Hoefkens, said he had expected as much.
A 4-0 thumping of their hosts elevated Brugge to the top of the Group B standings, as they added to last week’s home win over Bayer Leverkusen, making the Belgians the surprise package of the first fortnight of group phase play.
“You hope that your players carry out your plan as well as possible and when you see that all the puzzle pieces fall into place during the game, you come to this achievement,” said Hoefkens.
“I was convinced that we could get a result. I had said that in advance. But nobody expected that the result would be so emphatic.
“We want to win every game and I’m really happy that the players are going along so well. The genuine belief in our ability is there, we don’t pretend. Maybe it’s not an upset if we do everything so well?”
The two Champions League triumphs come on top of five successive victories for Brugge in the Belgian league as they have recovered quickly from a slow start to the season.
But they had hardly any time to prepare for the trip to Portugal after playing in domestic competition on Saturday.
“The fact the players took in all the tactics, even though we had no time to train them, makes the victory even more satisfying,” the coach added.
“Porto struggled with our pressing. Our defenders played high, our attackers pushed on and in possession of the ball we had to get out of their pressure and find space behind the defence. We did that well.”
Noticeable after all four goals was the stoic reaction of the 43-year-old coach, who played at Club Brugge, West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City, but is in his first coaching job.
As his players, substitutes and staff celebrated each goal, Hoefkens kept a poker face.
“I try as much as possible to leave the emotions out. A lot of things can happen after a goal, both for and against,” he told reporters.
“If you are too disappointed or too euphoric after a goal, you miss too much as a coach.
“I want to consciously see how all players react, how the staff reacts and how the stadium reacts. You can then respond to that and I think that is very important.”
Brugge’s next Group B clash is home to Atletico Madrid on Oct. 4
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
