Arne Slot is particularly pleased with Cyriel Dessers. The striker scored two goals on Thursday evening visiting Slavia Prague and therefore played an important role for Feyenoord in reaching the semi-finals of the Conference League. Slot engages in conversation with Veronica that the Dessers currently rented from KRC Genk with an option to buy worth four million euros is ‘more than worth its money’.
“Cyriel played fantastically”, Slot exults about the performance of his striker after the 1-3 win over Slavia Prague. “Slavia put a bit more pressure than in the first game and then it’s nice to have such a point of contact. Cyriel is more than worth his money. By renting out Robert Bozeník (to Fortuna Düsseldorf, ed.) we found some money to hire another striker. If you can achieve such a striker with these amounts, that is a compliment for the scouting, among other things.”
“No doubt there are now people asking why he wasn’t drafted last week, but this match suited him a bit better. We now needed a point of contact further from the goal,” adds the Feyenoord trainer – who opted for Bryan Linssen in his starting eleven in the first match in De Kuip (3-3) ESPN† “We are of course very happy. It’s a great achievement. We have already played so many matches in Europe and to get to the semi-finals now is very nice.”
“But yes, we are still very ambitious to go even further than this. It’s really nice to see how the fans presented themselves today, both in the city and here in the stadium with that incredible support. If it goes well tonight, we hope to have them again in Marseille. They are of great support to us, both in home and away games”, Slot gives a compliment to the fans who have traveled along. He thought his team ‘didn’t even get off to a good start’ in Prague.
“We were slow in the corner and that resulted in a dangerous moment. The next action resulted in a goal for us, which was nice. The first twenty minutes was not our best phase of ours, to be honest. I think we started to play much better after that and that we deserved to win,” says Slot. After the final whistle, he immediately celebrated with his staff. “We jumped up and down together. I think I behaved rather calmly. Completely compared to last week in De Kuip.”