“Of course we can still become champions”: Union has finally secured the long-awaited prize, but the hunger has not yet been satisfied

A big exercise. This is how you can describe the feeling of everyone who cares about Union. After two top years without any medal, the first prize since 1935 is now a fact. The Union players were of course extremely happy afterwards, but celebrating still happens with the brakes on. Club is already waiting for a crucial match in the title battle on Monday. “Of course we can still become champions.”

One by one they entered the mixed zone, the celebrating Unionists. Starting with Koki Machida, who gave Union the cup by scoring the only goal of the match. “It seems like I can only score in the cup,” laughed the Japanese, who also scored in the semi-final against Club. “This is really incredible, we have made history,” realizes the 26-year-old Japanese. “This is one of the best moments in my career, I will never forget it. After all these years we deserve this so much, we have fought hard for this. The final may not have been the best match, but that doesn’t matter now.”

Machida explained it all in English. That did not go without problems, but we can only praise the Japanese for making the effort to explain it in a foreign language. “Can we still become champions? Of course!”, Machida did not have to hesitate for long. “On Monday we play an important match against Club, and they have just suffered a blow after their defeat against Fiorentina. We are extremely motivated to win there.”

History books

Charles Vanhoutte also walked into the mixed zone with a big smile. The 25-year-old midfielder won the first prize of his career. “Yes, of course this is a fantastic moment,” said the West Flemish. “I immediately gave my medal to my girlfriend. If I too excited I dare to lose such things.”

“The match wasn’t great, we shouldn’t lie about that,” Vanhoutte realized. “Ultimately we score at the perfect moment via a stationary phase. We’ve proven before how dangerous we can be on that, and now again. We held up well in the second half, even though we suffered a lot. We will go down in the history books,” concludes the midfielder.