Coaching duo: #WISCER

The first match of the fourth qualifying round for the Conference League proved to be a disappointment for the White Star, who lost 1-6 to Belgian side Cercle Brugge on the round of 22. After the match, the managers of both teams met with journalists.

Miron Muslić - Cercle Brugge

"I must begin with words of appreciation and respect for Wisła, both as a club and an organization, and for its fans. I have never experienced such an atmosphere in my life, such support for a team. This is why we play football, why we love it. Huge respect, that's all. It was a magical evening for Cercle; we are writing new chapters in the history of this club. We delivered a fantastic performance. We said before the match that we had two steps to take, to give ourselves a present for last season. Wisła faced another knockout stage, and we had to approach this two-legged tie with courage. Perhaps we didn't fully realize what this away match would be like; we only had a partial understanding of how much support Wisła's fans have for them. I'm a bit lost for words; I'm usually quite talkative. I think the two-legged tie is already decided; we don't need to talk about the return leg. Congratulations and respect to our players and coaching staff. We did a fantastic job," said the visiting coach.

A Belgian journalist asked if the coach wasn't worried that his players had allowed Wisła too much in attack. "You think like a coach, and I like that. Wisła earned the chances they created. They deserved that goal. You can't defend against every attack. When you win 6-1 away, you have to be happy, but it's true. I also think Wisła created too many chances. We were extremely effective in attack, switching from defense to attack very quickly. I'm very happy. However, when I watch the replay, I'm sure I'll find something we can work on in future training sessions," he added.

Kazimierz Moskal - Wisla Krakow

"It definitely wasn't a good day. I'm not just talking about the match itself, but also about what happened in the afternoon (the funeral of coach Franciszek Smuda took place on Thursday). As for the match itself... It was a harsh lesson in European football for us. I think it's a completely different level than what we're currently playing at. The only thing I have a complaint about is that we conceded a few goals easily again – especially the second and fourth. For me, we absolutely should have avoided conceding those goals. It's a heavy defeat and it hurts. We weren't able to keep up with our opponents. I think the only ones who kept up or maintained our Europa League level were the fans, who supported us strongly until the end, but I realize it was painful for them too. Unfortunately, it turned out that our opponents were a much better team than us," Wisła's manager concluded. "We definitely weren't able to counter a few of the goals. However, as I said, I have a few grievances. At least two. I need to see the rest, but those two were definitely important goals too, because the second one came quickly after the first. And at the beginning of the second half, when we were trying to mobilize and look for a goal to make it 1-3, we got a goal to make it 0-4. Those two goals definitely put a heavy burden on our account as a team that has to defend, but the individual quality of these players, and I'm talking primarily about their physical preparation, was much higher than ours. We couldn't win duels. Only in the second half, when Baena came on, did he manage to do something on the wing a few times, but it definitely wasn't enough," he continued.

The score doesn't reflect the chances the R22 players created. However, they lacked effectiveness in front of goal. "Their goalkeeper also performed fantastically, saving shots like those from 'Gogi,' who, in my opinion, made a very good move, entered the penalty area very well and shot as he should have, but the goalkeeper managed to parry it. Of course, we could have scored one or two more goals, but objectively speaking, the Brugge team was better and absolutely deserved the win," he added.

The White Star's adventure in European competition is slowly coming to an end. How does the coach assess this period? "We have to realize that we're starting from the second tier of European competition, and I think that was obvious. Nobody expected us to reach this far, meaning the fourth round. There's always a sense of dissatisfaction or a bad taste in the mouth after matches like this, but I'd also like everyone to be aware of what this team looks like right now, how it's being built, and where we are at. When we face opponents with such good form, it's hard to expect miracles," he said. "It's definitely a dilemma, because we can't go into the second leg without thinking about how we want to play. We'll definitely want to say goodbye to the cups with honor, but we also have to think about the fact that three days later we'll have a league match and only then will there be a break. We have to play these two matches as well as we can, and then after this break, we can finally start preparing normally for the next league matches. I'm talking about these micro-cycles of training before each match. For now, we're giving the players some time off and want to rest a bit and reset after today's disappointing match," he said.

Does competing against a team like Cercle Brugge offer Wisła a learning opportunity? "You can learn, because the only way I think could help us is to play the ball faster. If we needed a second or third touch, or if we were moving the ball too slowly, they were already on us, and it was difficult for us to break through that pressure. In the first half, we also tried to play the ball behind the defense, but we couldn't keep up with them. That's the only way I imagined we could create something, by playing the ball much faster. I'm not saying necessarily with one touch, but you can play with two or three touches, but also faster, because the Brugge team was really aggressive and very quick in that attack," he analyzed.

The final question concerned Angel Rodado. Didn't it occur to the coach to take the striker off the pitch and rest him? "We don't have a match this weekend, so if we were playing, we'd probably rest him with this result, but we have a little more time to prepare and recover now, so I absolutely believe that 'Roda' himself wanted to play until the end and fight for that goal. Although we managed to score that one goal to wipe away the tears," he concluded.