Hassan Still Confident of Anderlecht's Chances

Hassan Still Confident of Anderlecht's Chances
By Nathan L. Redd

Despite suffering a 1-0 defeat yesterday, Anderlecht midfielder Ahmed Hassan still believes his side can advance to the group stages in the UEFA Champions League. Hassan told Egypt's Filgoal.com "Losing to Fenerbahce 1-0 in Istanbul at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium is not a bad result. I’m sure we can bounce back and make it up in the return leg."

Hassan felt that the Fenerbahce fans rattled his teammates a little. "Our setback was the lack of experience of some of our players who were intimidated by the exuberant fans. In the second half we took control of the game and wasted three chances to score, but this has given us the confidence that we can win in Belgium."

The former Besiktas player felt that his team played well enough to keep up with Fenerbahce. In this Filgoal.com interview, Hassan stated "I think we did well, and even though the score-line isn’t bad, I believe we could have at least been able to draw."

Fenerbahce and Anderlecht will meet again in two weeks in Brussels, Belgium. The second leg of the match will be on Wednesday, 29 August.