Van Bommel: “AEK is a difficult and experienced team – No one was ready for the summer friendly”

Its coach spoke about AEK in the best words Antwerp, Mark Van Bommelat the press conference ahead of the first match of the two teams in the Champions League Playoffs, on Tuesday (22/8, 22:00) in Antwerp.

In particular, the Dutch coach characterized AEK as a difficult and experienced team, while he also commented on the widespread dominance (3-0) of “Union” in the friendly meeting of the two clubs in the summer. He also mentioned his impending move Avila in Ajax.

In detail, Mark Van Bommel talked about:

– the matches with AEK: “We will face a difficult opponent. He has experience in Europe and we had experienced the 3-0 defeat in the pre-season. They weren’t ready yet, and neither were we then. But from our side we want to achieve the qualification. When we started last year this was a long way off, we hadn’t managed to qualify for the Conference League. Now the Europa League is a safety net for us, but we don’t want to think about it. Playing in the Champions League is something no one expected. How fantastic would that be?»

-whether it is a disadvantage for Antwerp that it plays the first match at home and the second leg is in Philadelphia: “According to statistics it doesn’t matter. Although that says absolutely nothing about this game».

– Avila going to Ajax: “It’s certainly annoying that we have to adapt relatively slowly, but on the other hand that’s the good thing about last season, that we had the possibility to sell both Avila and Patso for good money. We are not yet in a phase where we can say no to such amounts. But we are not worried about that. For Belgium these amounts are large, in Europe they are given even larger. We will certainly miss Gaston’s skills».