Antwerp coach Van Bommel believes in a title race again: “I’ll throw something crazy on the table….”

As calmly Van Bommel handled the 0 out of 9, he now remained so cool after the first three-pointer of the play-off. “A victory should not influence me,” the Dutchman started his press chat on Wednesday afternoon. “I have to influence, and not let myself be influenced. That’s the headline of your piece (Wink).”

“Of course it bothers you if you don’t win. But you can’t hang your head and do even crazier things if it becomes 0 out of 12.”

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Try something or not?

An unintentional bridge to the opponent of the next two matchdays, Union, which started the play-offs with four defeats. While people in Deurne-Noord managed to maintain calm in recent weeks, the Duden Park was on fire. Some players, led by Christian Burgess, fell out of their role, as did coach Alexander Blessin.

Van Bommel: “You cannot ignore the fact that the pressure there is extremely high. If you lose twice in thirty games, and now four times in a row – when it has to happen – well, that weighs on everyone.”

How do you deal with that? “That is very difficult for a trainer. How do your players react, knowing that analysts and media are jumping on it? It is important to stick to the familiar routines as much as possible.”

Antwerp and Union will meet three times in the next two weeks. Twice in the league, once in the cup final on May 9. “That’s crazy,” said Van Bommel. “You can look at the run-up to the cup final from two sides. Or I’m going to try something in the play-offs now – which is a strange idea anyway. If things don’t work out, you lose that match with, say, 3-0 and you know that this approach may not be an option for the cup final. But then you also throw away the play-offs.”

“If I broadly do the same, knowing that we defeated Union three times last season, then there is no guarantee of reaching the cup final. And what is also possible: I will change it on Thursday, and not on Sunday. What do I do on May 9?” (grins)

Calculator Van Bommel

Van Bommel raised a fog curtain, although he showed with his ambitions for the remaining six competition matches that he is not simply going to risk the play-offs. “Imagine – I now throw something very strange on the table: Anderlecht and Cercle draw twice, just like Club and Genk, while we win twice. Then we get to 35 points and the first one has a maximum of forty.” (laugh)

Van Bommel clearly still believes in it. “That’s how you have to hope and look at it. Crazier things have happened in the play-offs.”

Does his dressing room feel the same way? “It’s alive, yes. They also see many changes in the standings. We lost three times and, just like before the start of the play-offs, we are nine points off first place. Only now there are four teams above us instead of two.”

The home match against Union could well be a key match for Antwerp in this play-off. Van Bommel: “We want to win and Union must also win. This party can make a difference. I am convinced you will feel this in the stadium. As always, there will be venom.”

“By the way, this is only our second home game. The three home matches in part two of the play-offs can work to our advantage, provided we don’t miss anything else. Because we did put pressure on ourselves.”

Rumors about AC Milan

Van Bommel can count on the same selection as last weekend. At the end of the press conference, the Antwerp coach dismissed the interest of his ex-club AC Milan. A few days ago, rumors surfaced that club icon and former teammate Zlatan Ibrahimović wants to bring him to San Siro.