New coach Vincent Euvrard will not miss the start with Zulte Waregem, but still sees many areas for improvement after the cup match: “Nothing is perfect in football anyway”

Football Croky Cup – 6th round Zulte Waregem – Sint-Lenaarts 4-1

Debutant Robbe Decostere (r) celebrates his goal with Lukas Willen (l) and Christian Brüls (m), who also scored.© Marc Van Hecke

Zulte / Waregem

It was far from perfect, but Vincent Euvrard did not miss his start as coach of Zulte Waregem with a 4-1 win in the cup match against the Antwerp third division club Sint-Lenaarts. He saw plenty of things to build on: “Nothing is perfect in football anyway,” Euvrard said.

When seeing Essevee’s setup, Vincent Euvrard’s hand was immediately noticeable. Just like his teacher Frank Vercauteren, he uses a system with three central defenders (Tambedou, Derijck and Willen) and two wingbacks (Ciranni on the right and Traore on the left). In midfield there was a central role for defensive midfielder Rommens, with Brüls and Vormer in front of him. Vossen and Ndour were at the front.

Abdoulaye Traore opened the scoring.© Marc Van Hecke

Brother Yannick Euvrard (resident of Waregem and until recently a footballer for De Rassing, but now full-time assistant coach at Anderlecht, ed.) was present and he immediately saw Essevee looking for the opening goal. It deservedly came past Traore after 17 minutes. Zulte Waregem pressed the Antwerp team with their backs on goal and performed much better than against Dender. Logical too, because Sint-Lenaarts is only a third national team and therefore of a lower level. The pace could have been a little faster, but the heat – it was no less than 34 degrees – obviously also played a role in that. “I have rarely experienced this and I actually wonder whether this is still healthy,” said a soaking wet Christian Brüls.

“There are no miracles, but hard work and paying attention to details are”

Vincent Euvrard (coach Zulte Waregem)

And it didn’t get any easier when the third division team actually came alongside again via Borahasar (ex-Club Brugge) after a too short back pass from Tambedou. At half-time, Vincent Euvrard had seen enough and brought on recent signings Decostere, Bagan and Demuynck for Ciranni, Tambedou and Ndour. It had an effect, as Essevee laid siege to goalkeeper Nolle’s goal, who surrendered just before the hour mark when Brüls hit the roof of the goal. It turned out to be the redeeming goal, because from that moment on everything went smoothly and substitutes Decostere and Demuynck definitely made the difference.

Vincent Euvrard with advice for his players.© Marc Van Hecke

Clear identity

All in all, a successful overture for Vincent Euvrard. “Nothing can be perfect after three days and nothing is perfect in football anyway,” the coach responded. “I saw good things and of course also areas for improvement, but above all I saw something on which we can continue to build. We saw many players at work and that is also positive. The surprising 1-1 half way score was mainly due to ourselves because we did not capitalize on the opportunities. It could have been 4-0 or even 5-0 then, but then we gave away a goal after an individual error. This way you give your opponent confidence again, but no one will doubt that we deserved to convert further. Now it’s time to make progress and play with a clear identity. The players must keep it compact and show cohesion in the team. There are no miracles, but hard work and paying attention to details do. The sum of all this makes the difference.”

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