The former SBV Excelsior boss has expressed his delight following the win in the first-leg of Europa League play-offs and insisted that his side staged a scintillating show at home.
NEC Nijmegen head coach, Alex Pastoor, was extremely delighted with his side’s 3-2 win over Vitesse Arnhem in the first-leg of the Europa League play-offs at McDOS Goffertstadion on Thursday, May 10.
The Dutch trainer was all praise for his troops’ efforts on the pitch, and insisted that they played quality football to emerge victorious in the end.
“We have claimed a very deserving victory. We played very nice and kept on searching for the winner after levelling the score-line 2-2”, Pastoor was quoted as saying to the media.
Vitesse started the match brightly, and took the lead moments after the half-hour mark when Giorgi Chanturia’s cross was headed in by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nicky-Hofs-c27732.
Three minutes before the half-time interval, the home side restored parity through Navarone Foor. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kevin-Conboy-c20711 header, but Foor reacted quickly to tap in.
Both sides had to leave the pitch for 15 minutes, as the match had to be halted due to a thunderstorm. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Vitesse-c40905 resumed the action aggressively and reclaimed their one-goal lead in the 61st minute through Wilfried Bony.
Lasse Schone scored the equaliser from the spot after Genero Zeefuik was brought down by Van der Striujk in the 79th minute.
Two minutes from time, the referee awarded a controversial own goal in favour of NEC when Van der Struijk desperately tried to clear the ball after poking it in his own goal.
Pastoor was unable to hide his happiness following the win, and insisted that his side’s winning mentality claimed them a deserving victory.
“I do not want to hear now that we were fortunate to be awarded that own goal. I can also quote many occasions when the referee could have whistled in our favour, but he didn’t. We played impressively throughout the 90 minutes.
We are now confident. The feeling is great and the boys are very optimistic about qualifying for Europa League”, the Dutch trainer concluded.
The return leg between http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/NEC-c40018 and Vitesse will be played at GelreDome Stadion on Sunday, May 13.
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