Copenhagen coach Jacob Neestrup on their shock 4-3 win over Manchester United
Copenhagen coach Jacob Neestrup on their shock 4-3 win over Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League
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00:00 Hi, everybody.
00:04 Sorry to keep you waiting.
00:06 Please go ahead with questions in either Danish or in English,
00:09 and we'll do our very best to answer them.
00:13 And please wait for the microphone when you have your turn.
00:18 Who wants to go first? Yeah.
00:21 Hi. Just over here.
00:25 Congratulations on the win.
00:28 Do you think it was a fair result in the end?
00:30 Do you think the red card was the decisive moment?
00:33 I think I've said now three rounds in a row where I think we have been...
00:37 I have never said in the first three rounds we've played that we've been unlucky.
00:42 I've said it's been lack of quality.
00:45 You can ask all the Danish journalists about that.
00:49 If there is something that is called luck in football,
00:52 then we've got it today, but we're also hunted.
00:57 The game today, the early goal,
00:59 make us very, very shaky.
01:03 We are the second best team on the pitch in the whole first half
01:11 until the red card.
01:14 That, of course, changed momentum
01:16 for the next 15 minutes in the first half where we scored two goals.
01:22 I'm not satisfied with the start of the second half.
01:26 And it's first after the third goal where we do enough
01:31 to push and to go for the win.
01:35 So, of course, the red card
01:38 changed the opportunities
01:42 in the game.
01:44 And for me as a Copenhagen coach, it was by far the weakest performance
01:51 we have had in this group stage so far.
01:54 So if you take the picture today, then we maybe didn't deserve
01:58 three or maybe even one point.
02:01 But if you take it over four rounds, then it's very, very well deserved
02:06 that Copenhagen is on the second place, because I believe
02:11 truly that we have been the second best team over four games.
02:15 Not today, but over four games.
02:20 I would like to ask, Tinn Haak was here a moment ago and said that
02:25 the free kick that Rashford made, when he gave the red card, looked much worse
02:30 on the replay.
02:33 I would like to hear if it was also your assessment that there should have been red
02:37 and did you see it as the turning point of the game?
02:39 I think in general, everything in slow motion and everything in replay
02:44 looks much, much worse.
02:48 When the game takes place, I don't even register that it's a free kick.
02:52 When I see it, when I was presented to get it in the studio,
02:57 regardless of whether, because Rashford doesn't do it by choice,
03:01 but then it's a red card.
03:04 It can't be discussed.
03:07 I can understand the frustration, because it is of course the game situation
03:11 that gives us much better conditions to come back.
03:17 I think it was here first.
03:19 You say yourself that maybe you should have had a point, but you end up getting three.
03:25 And it's a, on paper, a crazy result against Manchester United.
03:29 What have you said to the reaction in the dressing room about this game?
03:33 We are happy and we know well that there were many things that did not succeed today.
03:39 And that's how it is in football once in a while.
03:41 But I just have to say again that there is a huge characteristic of this football team
03:45 and it's about again, not about luck or bad luck,
03:47 but that we never give up.
03:49 We always come back, almost always.
03:51 We keep calm when we are most, most pressed,
03:56 regardless of whether we play at Brøndby Stadium,
03:59 where we come back 2-1 in the second half,
04:01 where we are clearly, clearly, clearly the best team.
04:03 Then we keep calm.
04:04 And we do that today, where our best period is after 3-2 goals.
04:14 What do you think changed in the second half?
04:16 Obviously, the red card in the first,
04:18 but in the second, the way it went from United, their penalty, being fairly comfortable,
04:21 to then suddenly mayhem.
04:23 Did you just sense opportunity?
04:24 The third goal.
04:26 That's what I just said.
04:27 You know that I don't think we were...
04:31 I said to the players that no matter if they are 11 players on the pitch,
04:37 10, 5, 2 or 1,
04:40 then the best phase of the game, in my opinion, of Manchester United,
04:45 is on the long transitions.
04:47 So we should avoid that.
04:48 We should avoid to open,
04:50 but that had a negative influence and that's on me.
04:53 It's not on the players, because we became very, very passive.
04:56 The third goal was maybe the most important that happened for us today.
05:02 That was that Manchester United were rewarded a penalty out of nowhere,
05:07 because that goal changed the game again.
05:10 Gisle?
05:11 Nes, there was a manager who said football was blue in the head,
05:15 when he was describing a very good football game.
05:18 What words will you use when you think back to that game you experienced tonight?
05:24 Well, that...
05:26 I don't know if I can...
05:29 I probably can't find a word right now.
05:31 You'll have to excuse me.
05:33 But I think what I will take away is that I, as a coach,
05:38 and my staff and the players, we do everything we can
05:43 to get the chances on our side.
05:47 Because football is, far and wide, a chance sport,
05:52 and it's about getting them on your side.
05:56 We didn't actually manage to increase the chance of that today.
06:02 But even in spite of that, there's always a way out for this team,
06:07 and we'll all take that with us.
06:09 And no matter how black it looks,
06:12 you have to do everything you can to chase that famous goal.
06:17 And we do that not in the entire game,
06:21 but we do it in a very important period, late in the first half,
06:24 and late in the second half,
06:26 where I still 100% acknowledge that the red card
06:29 has a huge impact on our chance of coming back.
06:36 What do you think of your chances of coming back?
06:40 You said you think you deserve to be in second place.
06:43 I see them as good.
06:45 And that's perhaps also, if I'm being honest,
06:48 the reason we're sitting here today with four points.
06:52 It's clear that it will be up for grabs in the next two games,
06:56 because we've been very clear about that,
06:58 and we have a goal to play European football in 2024.
07:03 And that goal has of course led to us playing in the Champions League in 2024.
07:08 And one of the reasons I think we have the chance to do so,
07:12 in a very, very difficult group,
07:14 with the best team in Turkey,
07:17 which has probably scored a point in Turkish football now,
07:21 Bayern Munich, which we know, a big club like Manchester United.
07:25 There hasn't been any cheating on our part.
07:29 We've clearly stated that we just have to deliver when we play against these teams.
07:35 And there's only one thing that counts for us,
07:37 and that's to get through.
07:40 And I think that rhetoric has been important for all of us.
07:45 That's where we come from.
07:47 Some will say it's arrogant, that's definitely not the point.
07:50 And I hope no one has been feeling provoked.
07:53 But for me, it's been crazy.
07:55 There was a reason why Camille Grabata was in the first press meeting in Istanbul,
08:00 because he needed someone who banged the table and said,
08:03 "We have one thing, and that's to win some football matches, nothing else."
08:07 You said earlier that if there's something called luck in football,
08:12 it could be something you got today. Can you try to elaborate on that?
08:16 I can. As I said, coincidences are part of the game.
08:21 I used that picture from the game before,
08:25 when we're aiming for the goal, we have to go for a rebound.
08:30 You can be lucky if the ball lands there,
08:33 but if you don't aim for it, you'll never get it.
08:36 And you can say, in a tackle, that Elias Jellert can go a little off,
08:43 but if he doesn't go in and hit the ball,
08:45 it's potentially never a red card, that you can use a thousand times.
08:51 And that's looking for what can be defined as luck,
08:58 which you also have to...
09:00 If you're in the Champions League, you also have to have a little bit of luck
09:05 on your way into the six-matches.
09:07 What picture did you use?
09:09 I didn't use any picture. I tried to use my own words.
09:13 I don't know how well it went.
09:16 You're well into the history of the FCK.
09:19 The result was celebrated today, in 2006.
09:24 You beat Manchester United today.
09:26 How do you feel about the result?
09:28 I feel we've made history, if we go on to after Christmas.
09:33 I feel that's where we are as a club.
09:35 For me, it's not.
09:37 We shouldn't prove that we can win over Manchester United on home ground,
09:43 no matter if it's a bit lucky or not.
09:45 We shouldn't prove that we can play up against Bayern Munich.
09:48 Those are our expectations.
09:51 For me, it's a great result, and I'm very proud of it.
09:57 But history for me, when I was in this club today,
10:01 is when we win a Danish championship after having been 10 points behind in 22 matches.
10:06 It's when we win a title.
10:09 It's when we qualify for the Champions League.
10:12 That's history for me.
10:16 Your match-finding day is 17 years old.
10:26 What do you tell him when you send him on the pitch?
10:29 It's just a short three-lap, right?
10:32 I don't say much.
10:34 That's also the plan for today's coach.
10:37 It was clear what we should do if we come out on top.
10:41 Rooney is in the mix.
10:43 We weren't really set up for that, to be honest.
10:47 Rooney is a guy with a lot of self-confidence.
10:50 He is...
10:52 I don't understand why he doesn't play a match like today.
10:57 And that's great.
10:59 He thinks he was born to play a match like today.
11:03 No matter if he comes in from the bench.
11:06 And he dares to say it to the coach.
11:10 I'm so happy for him that it ends up being him.
11:15 I think it was Stefan who gave him the last tactical instructions.
11:20 For me, the message was, "Just go and be Rooney."
11:24 He has a lot of good actions, besides scoring.
11:27 He tried to score on his first action.
11:30 Exactly. He wanted to play this match.
11:33 Last question.
11:38 A question for Ines München.
11:42 How do you want to convince your players that you can do it?
11:46 It won't be hard to convince this group.
11:50 But we have to start by chasing the good performance.
11:56 We have to start with the three matches to increase the chance of scoring.
12:03 It won't be hard to convince them.
12:07 It will be harder to execute on the next one.
12:13 But none of my players should be convinced.
12:20 We believe in ourselves and we think we have a fair chance of winning.
12:29 Thank you for tonight.
12:33 Have a good one.
12:35 (thudding)
12:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]