Trainer Ron Jans was negatively surprised on Tuesday evening by the way FC Twente started the match against De Graafschap in the first round of the TOTO KNVB Cup. The team from Enschede played well below level in the first half in particular and was surprisingly eliminated by the club from the Kitchen Champion Division (1-3).
“We lost the game in the first half”, Jans agreed in conversation with FOX Sports. “De Graafschap was hungrier and more eager and only after half time did we play as we should. I am not only disappointed in the players, but in all of us.”
FC Twente, which did not start in the strongest line-up in the Grolsch Veste, was already 0-2 behind against De Graafschap at halftime. In the second half Jans’s team performed better and Casper Staring scored the tying goal, but Julian Lelieveld decided the game deep in injury time on behalf of De Graafschap.
“Normally we have so much intensity and energy, but not now. I did everything I could to get the players in the right mindset, but we only succeeded in the second half. Sometimes a stick works better than a pat. Have we learned something again? “
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De Graafschap was surprisingly too strong for FC Twente in the first round of the KNVB Cup. (Photo: ANP)
“It all went so well, didn’t it?”
The elimination in the KNVB cup is a new damper for FC Twente after an excellent start to the season. The current number six of the Eredivisie suffered the first league defeat against FC Utrecht (2-1) last Saturday.
“It all went so well, didn’t it?” Said Jans. “The players received compliments and took action for representative teams. De Graafschap has done well, but this is actually not possible at all.”
FC Twente will have the chance for revenge on Saturday, when Jans’s team plays a home game against PEC Zwolle. “We have to keep working hard now, stick together and put this right against PEC. Not everything is gone now, but the cup is. And that really, really sucks.”
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