Arne Slot is satisfied with Feyenoord’s victory in the Champions League. On Tuesday evening, the Rotterdam team won 2-0 against Celtic, which ultimately ended the match with nine men on the field. A major disappointment for the team was the withdrawal of Luka Ivanusec, who was carried off the field on a stretcher with his hands in front of his face in the final phase. Slot is sure that the winger cannot participate the classic from next Sunday.
“I wasn’t shocked by the first half,” Slot reflects in front of the camera RTL 7. “If you analyze Celtic, you know that that team presses aggressively. You may have to get used to that, or it was our nerves in the Champions League. It was clear that we were not building up as well as usual. It was restless on our part with difficult passes. Celtic also took a risk, because the team played one-on-one almost over the entire field. The most important thing was that we gave little away, and that is crucial at Champions League level.”
“It is of course a shame that we did not score even more,” continues Slot, who hoped for a bigger victory when it became clear that Celtic were down to nine men. “When I walked off the field I also said to Marino (Pusic, ed.) that we should ask ourselves whether we should be satisfied with a 2-0 win against nine men, especially because the mutual result can be important in the final phase. At the same time, it is not the case that Feyenoord wins every Champions League match, so that is very nice.”
A major blemish on the match for Feyenoord was the failure of Ivanusec, who seemed to suffer a serious ankle injury in the final phase. Ajax-out will not get the Croat anyway, Slot knows. “I don’t know exactly how serious the injury is. But if that ankle thickens right away, then I have no illusions that he will be able to play on Sunday. How exactly he was eliminated remains to be seen. It will be a tape,” concludes Slot when he looks back at the images.