'Standard play football with lots of passion'

By Nick Teale

Back in 1993, Arsenal registered their biggest European away win against Standard, winning 7-0 in Liege.

The Belgians have come a long way since then and last year made their mark in Europe when they came very close to knocking Liverpool out of the Champions League at the qualification stage.

They followed that up by dumping Everton out of the Uefa Cup, proceeding to win their group with three wins out of four.

Now they finally have their chance in the Champions League Group Stage, and kick off their campaign by hosting Arsenal.

To find out a little more about the Belgian champions, we spoke to Het Laatste Nieuws reporter Kristof Terreur.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FEVER
"Standard were already looking forward to the Champions League last season when they played Liverpool in the last qualifying stage, but they missed out [when Dirk Kuyt scored] in extra time after 118 minutes. They were very disappointed because they thought they deserved to go to the Group Stage. 
Last season they were Belgian champions again and there is huge excitement; everybody is looking forward to the Champions League because it is a few years since a Belgian team made it to the Group Stage.

"They are hopeful they can achieve progression to the knockout stages. They had a good Uefa Cup run last season with wins against Sevilla, Sampdoria and Partizan Belgrade. They are really hopeful they can show the same things they showed last season against Liverpool and Everton in the Uefa Cup. They really want to show that Standard are a good team."

THE STORY SO FAR
"At the beginning of the season the coach, Laszlo Boloni - who launched Cristiano Ronaldo's career at Sporting Lisbon - said at the beginning of September that Standard had to be top in Belgium, so they could build up well to the Champions League, but they have drawn four games and only won twice so far."

TALKING TACTICS
"Standard play football technically well, their game has lots of passion. They have a defence with tall, strong guys, a midfield with technical players and two complete attackers who are fast and strong. 
Standard fans create a South American atmosphere at the stadium.

"Everybody will be singing all the time, like they used to in England some years ago. Last year in Liverpool, there was more atmosphere from the 5,000 Standard fans than from the 40,000 home fans at Anfield, and the Liverpool fans were very impressed with them."

SADLY MISSED
"Steven Defour [who was ruled out for three months at the weekend] is the heartbeat of the Standard game; he's passionate and plays good football. They will certainly miss him. He is the most important player to their game in my opinion. There are other players who are doubtful too, including [midfielder Wilfried] Dalmart and [striker Igor] De Camargo."

CAUSE FOR CONCERN
"We are not sure yet if they can reach the level they did last year. In Belgium they are still better than most teams, but in Europe we really don't know how strong they are, and without Defour it will be difficult for them.


"After this weekend they don't really know because they lost Defour, but they are still a confident team because they have players who are perhaps a little over-confident - on the level between confident and over-confident. They know what they can achieve and they bring that into their game, but without Defour there are doubts. They don't have the confidence they had last season when the started their European campaign against Liverpool and against Everton."

[Tuesday, September 15, 2009]

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