VITESSE HEAD COACH Thomas Letsch admitted he was a relieved man, after seeing his side survive a nervy final few minutes to progress at the expense of Dundalk in last night’s Europa Conference League clash.
After the first leg ended in a 2-2 draw, goals from Matus Bero and Yann Gboho put the Dutch outfit in control of the tie in Tallaght.
However, the Irish side gradually fought their way back into the game. Pat Hoban’s goal from the penalty spot with just under 20 minutes remaining served as the catalyst for a late rally, with the Lilywhites ultimately unfortunate not to take the tie to extra-time at least.
Speaking to Irish media afterwards, Letsch, who took over as Vitesse manager last year, said: “We scored at the right time. It was a big boost for us. But we knew exactly that Dundalk would come out of the dressing room and do everything to go for the first goal. After the first 10 minutes [of the second half] everything was under control. Then we got out of our structure like we did in the last game and this is the thing we have to work on.
“You also could see, we are at the beginning of the season, they are in the middle of the season.
“It was really a nice atmosphere here. It seemed not like 1,500, it seemed like 5,000 and this is good. [The crowd] pushed the team forward.”
Of the tense climax, he added: “Instead of 52, I’m now 58. It was really long. It was a really hard [last] 10 minutes.”
Letsch also praised the performance of goalkeeper Markus Schubert, who signed for the club from Schalke in July, and unsurprisingly did not join opposite number Vinny Perth in criticising officials for their controversial decision to disallow Dundalk’s first-minute goal.
“For me, it was no goal of course, but I haven’t seen it on television. I heard from the Dundalk side that it was no offside. But it’s always the same, if we’ve no VAR, we can discuss the situation, but you’ve no idea in which direction the game will go.”
And asked whether he was surprised at the levels Dundalk reached last night in contrast with their often indifferent domestic form, Letsch replied: “If you see them on video and watch them in the games in the league, it’s totally different. For example, we also watched the last game [the 4-1 defeat against Pat's], but this is football. You can watch games, analyse games, but what happens on the pitch is totally different. Therefore, on the one hand, I was not surprised. Because you saw this team play the last few years in Europe and they have this experience. On the other hand, the mentality of the team I really like, therefore I ought to give the coach congrats for this performance. On the other hand, if I were the coach on the other side, I don’t want to hear this story, so it’s better not to say it.”
