Latest news with #Hayen
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Club Brugge manager makes 'pressure' point ahead of Aston Villa clash
Club Brugge manager Nick Hayen claims nobody is giving them a chance of overturning their two-goal deficit at Villa Park tomorrow night and progressing to the Champions League quarter-finals. Aston Villa won 3-1 at the Jan Breydel Stadium last Tuesday after an own goal from Brandon Mechele handed them the lead late on before Marco Asensio scored a penalty. Brugge have never won away in England in major European competition in 14 attempts, losing their last five visits, but while Hayen is under no illusions of the big task facing his side on Wednesday, he still has faith in progressing. READ MORE: Simon Jordan delivers brutal Jack Grealish verdict and questions his next transfer destination READ MORE: Man Utd's Jim Ratcliffe reacts to Marcus Rashford's Aston Villa transfer 'If we did not believe in it, we would not be here,' Hayen said about his side's chances. 'You always have to believe. 'Tomorrow we will need a similar performance to Atalanta. But what we have done has given us confidence. 'The only thing we know is we really believe in our own chances. Even if it is a small percentage, we still believe. 'The players believe in it. That has been the case in the dressing room the last couple of days. 'We still believe we can do it. We can turn it around in as tough a way as possible. We will consider everything. But it is quite easy, we have to score. 'We played with courage at home, we went for it. We went on the attack. We had chances we didn't really use. 'If you take your chances we can go ahead. We know it is going to be more difficult but that is obvious. 'What we did against Atalanta was the ideal scenario. But you are not going to do that every time. 'We can't let Villa score. That is what happened last week. They scored and took the tempo out of the game. We can't let that happen. 'We will have to be more clever and put more pressure on attacking-wise. We are going for it 100 per cent. 'We have to win. There is no pressure. Nobody is giving us a chance. It is like a bonus match but we are going to go and try to win.' Brugge midfielder Ardon Jashari added: 'We had a really good game against them and we showed a really good performance in the league phase. 'You never know in football. It will be difficult, but everything is possible in football. We have nothing to lose and we will go for it fully. 'It is difficult to say a percentage. When we have chances to score, efficiency will be really important. When you see the game, we had clear chances. 'Tomorrow may be different because they play at home. When we play at home, the chances will be there. 'I think the difference is that we won the first leg against Atalanta [first leg]. Villa have two goals ahead and this is the difference. 'We will have to see how they play, but it will be a totally different game because they are leading. It is a completely different game. 'The team won't play with pressure. We will try our best to go through, of course. We can still believe in that, but we don't have pressure for tomorrow. 'We have to be ready from the first second. In football it is not over until the referee blows his whistle. We have to take our chances and play as a team. 'They know we are a strong team. I don't think Aston Villa will underestimate us for tomorrow. 'They know how we played in the two home games against them. They are leading with two goals, but we haven't got a lot to lose.'
New York Times
04-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Nicky Hayen interview: ‘Never in my life did I think I would manage Club Brugge or a top team'
It is a long way from The Rock in north Wales to the knockout stage of the Champions League, and Nicky Hayen never imagined for one moment he would end up making that unlikely journey. Three years ago, the Club Brugge head coach was taking in the scenery — literally — at the home of Cefn Druids as the manager of Haverfordwest County in the Cymru Premier, the top flight of Welsh football. It was Hayen's first game in charge and there were 102 people in attendance at a stadium that is next to a disused quarry. Advertisement Asked what was going through his mind on the touchline, Hayen smiles. 'What I was thinking at that moment was, 'What a nice view',' he says. 'The Rock stadium is really… you don't have to see it through the stands because there are almost no stands, but it's like a rock next to the pitch and I admired the view.' Hayen's time with Haverfordwest was short but sweet. He enjoyed it so much that he was in tears when he left, and it says everything about his affection for the club and the people involved that he gets emotional during this interview when talking about the respect that Haverfordwest's chairman Rob Edwards showed him after a job opportunity came up back home in Belgium. What happened next was not in anyone's script. Having returned to Brugge to coach the reserves in the summer of 2022, Hayen took over as caretaker manager of the first team when Ronny Deila was sacked last March, with the club in fifth place at the end of the regular season. Two months later, in the six-team play-off mini-league, Hayen led Brugge to the title. In June, he got the job permanently. In December, he was named Belgian coach of the year. Last month, his Brugge side beat Atalanta, the 2024 Europa League winners, 5-2 on aggregate in the play-off round to set up a last-16 Champions League tie against Aston Villa. It has been a whirlwind and Hayen sounds as surprised as anyone. 'Never in my 44-year life would I have thought I would manage the first team of Brugge or a top team,' he says. As well as defeating Atalanta home and away, Hayen has led Brugge to Champions League victories over Sporting Lisbon, Sturm Graz and Villa. It has been quite a ride, taking in trips along the way to Milan, Celtic and Manchester City, where footage of Pep Guardiola accidentally throwing a ball at Hayen on the touchline went viral. Guardiola was mortified but Hayen's relaxed reaction diffused the situation immediately anyway. Pep Guardiola accidentally hits Club Brugge manager Nicky Hayen with the ball trying to quickly restart play 😅 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 29, 2025 'It wasn't on purpose and he came to apologise,' Hayen says. 'I'm not a coach who is moaning or arguing a lot. I always try to stay calm, and he showed a respectful reaction by coming to me. And he's one of the greatest coaches in the history of football.' A measured and humble man, it is hard to imagine anything rattling Hayen, who revealed in a press conference after the Atalanta second leg that he always speaks to his late mother before matches. The story behind that story feels like a life lesson for many of us. Hayen had never set foot in Wales before he took the Haverfordwest County job. 'I had never heard about the league either,' he says. 'It was just an opportunity that came. I have an app where some jobs come in, and this was one of the job descriptions there. I showed my interest and 30 minutes later I already had an answer.' Advertisement A former professional footballer in Belgium, where he played more than 250 games in the top flight, Hayen had coached for the best part of a decade across a range of levels — youth and senior, lower league and top flight — prior to joining Haverfordwest. His previous job ended in relegation from the Jupiler Pro League with Waasland-Beveren in 2021, and the Haverfordwest experience could easily have gone the same way — they were second from bottom when he was appointed. Did people in Belgium not think it was a strange job to take? 'Yeah, really strange,' Hayen replies. 'I think if I wasn't successful over there, maybe my coaching career was finished. Or you had to start in a lower division again, at amateur level. So, yes, it was a risk.' Hayen did his homework. He read up on the league, looked up the stadiums — 'football is football, if you play before 30,000 people or 100 people, you still want to win that game' — and also watched half a dozen Haverfordwest matches on video. 'I think three games were really useful. Three games were really like… I don't say rubbish, but scaring me is not the right word either. More like difficult.' After a slight delay with his work permit, he was up and running, introducing a more expansive style of play and taking away 'the fear of defeat'. Haverfordwest won their first four games under him, scoring 15 goals, and climbed to safety. Settled at the club and chasing a target of European qualification within three years, Hayen had no plans to leave until he received a phone call at the end of his first season that would, ultimately, transform his managerial career. Brugge wanted Hayen to run their under-23 team, who play in the Belgian second tier, and he had 24 hours to make a decision. 'I had an open conversation the evening before with Rob. He said, 'OK, I understand. But I want to keep you. I want to give you everything you want. Except I'm not going to sell the club to you! That's the only thing I can't do'. He said, 'Look, think in an easy way in the car' — I had four or five hours to drive — 'and just give me the answer before noon'. Advertisement 'I phoned him exactly one minute before noon. And it was with tears in my eyes that I told him, 'I'm going to tell you something that I never, ever want to say to you…'. He didn't let me finish. He said, 'Are you sure?'. And I said, 'Yes, I'm sure.' And then he said, 'Then I'm really glad that I can say how stupid you would be not to take that offer'.' Hayen shakes his head and smiles. 'It's the first time a chairman ever said something like this to me. 'I had the vice-chairman on the phone after and he asked, 'If Rob had mentioned what he wanted to do for you'. I said, 'No.' He said, 'Rob called the board together at six in the morning, saw that I was struggling making the decision and said maybe we should end the contract, so that he doesn't have to take this difficult decision, so it's just a no-brainer that he can go'.' Hayen puffs out his cheeks and looks at his arms. 'This makes me emotional and gives me goosebumps at the same time. How warm, how respectful. He's a friend for life.' Hayen was busy with working and coaching. Too busy. 'Sometimes your life is so hectic that you don't stop to think about normal things, like visiting your parents,' he says. 'My mother passed away four years ago. Before she passed away, I was working part-time in the morning and the evening, so I didn't have much time. 'At a certain moment, my hairdresser said that my mother asked her, 'How is my son?'. And my hairdresser — because she lives near me — said, 'He's doing fine'. My mum said, 'I don't see my son a lot. I think you see him more'. And then she (the hairdresser) said to me, 'Sometimes you have to visit your mother'. This was an eye-opener for me and from that moment I went once a week to have a coffee over there, for two or three years, until she was sick and then she passed away.' Advertisement It's a story that provides some context to the comments Hayen made after the away victory over Atalanta, when he mentioned how he speaks to his late mother prior to games. 'I have the letter (order of service) of her funeral — it's downstairs now — always with me,' he explains. 'And every time when I go to the cemetery, I take a coffee along and I drink it at her grave and I just talk with her. 'And the moment that I was hired as the first-team manager here, last season, I just said to her, 'Let's do something crazy that no one expects'. Then we won the title and no one expected it. 'I don't say that I'm a big believer but at that moment, if you achieve something like this, of course you think that she helped. And this is something that I keep on doing. 'It's not always that I have a conversation of five minutes. Sometimes I close my eyes and I'm thinking about her. That's it. Sometimes I say, 'It's a difficult game today. Help us, we need this win.'' When Hayen addressed the Brugge players for the first time as caretaker manager, he chose his words carefully. 'I said to them that I'm not going to teach them how they have to play football because they have more experience than me — they played in higher leagues, they played with national teams. I was telling them that I wanted to guide them in the right direction and I gave them some tools so that we could do things better than before, like a collaboration.' Hayen quickly won matches but, perhaps more importantly, won credibility with his methods. 'One thing is crucial, that everyone in my team knows exactly what he has to do in an offensive way and in a defensive way. I want to have the ball as much as possible. But, of course, if you play against a team that is much stronger with the ball, then you have to change your playing style a little bit. But with 30 per cent of the ball you can also do good things, which we already showed.' Advertisement The away leg against Atalanta was a case in point and highlighted the team's tactical flexibility under Hayen. Brugge, who are dominant in possession in domestic matches, had only 35 per cent of the ball in Bergamo but were lethal on the counter-attack. Their third goal, wonderfully dispatched on the half-volley by Ferran Jutgla, after Christos Tzolis had scampered clear on the left, was a thing of beauty. 'A magnificent feeling,' Hayen says. Ferran Jutglà, what a strike 🚀 An incredible sequence of events sees Club Brugge score a third, moments after Atalanta see an effort cleared off the line! 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 18, 2025 At the other end of the pitch, an experienced and familiar face more than did his job too. The former Sunderland and Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, who turns 37 on Thursday, prevented Atalanta from scoring what could have been a crucial second goal when he kept out Ademola Lookman's penalty in the 61st minute. 'Simon is one of the leading players on the pitch and also in the dressing room,' Hayen says. 'He's a real professional. You saw that when he doesn't know something, like, for example, we weren't expecting Lookman to take that penalty, he sprints immediately to our goalkeeper coach who has all the information.' Villa are up next and it is one of the strange quirks of the competition's new format that the two clubs have already met in the league phase. Brugge won that game 1-0, when Hans Vanaken converted from the spot after Tyrone Mings handled the ball in bizarre circumstances. Hayen notes how Villa have strengthened since then, signing Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford. Brugge are potentially dangerous underdogs, though. 'We're now at a stage — and it was the same before the Atalanta game — where we don't have much to lose,' Hayen adds. As for Hayen himself, his feet are as firmly on the ground now as they were at Cefn Druids three years ago. 'I'm living the dream and I try to enjoy it as much as possible,' he says. 'But I won't be the guy who's going to be partying on the table when you win, and I'm not going to sit in a corner when you lose. I just try to stay normal.'
Al-Ahram Weekly
03-03-2025
- Sport
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Club Brugge aim to take Aston Villa scalp again in Champions League - World
Club Brugge are hoping to claim the scalp of Aston Villa for the second time in this season's Champions League as the sides meet once again in the last 16, with the Belgians in buoyant mood after dumping out Atalanta in the play-offs. That remarkable 5-2 aggregate victory against last season's Europa League winners marked the first time Club Brugge had won a knockout tie in the continent's elite competition in the modern Champions League era. The Belgian champions controversially won 2-1 at home in the first leg thanks to a disputed stoppage-time penalty by Swedish forward Gustaf Nilsson. But their counter-attacking display in the return in Italy was outstanding, with teenager Chemsdine Talbi scoring twice and Ferran Jutgla once in a 3-1 triumph. Now Villa stand in their way in Tuesday's first leg, but Club Brugge will not fear the Premier League side, having won 1-0 when the teams met in Belgium in the league phase in November. That game was decided by a Hans Vanaken penalty awarded following a bizarre Tyrone Mings handball. Villa have since added Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio to their squad and look stronger now, but coach Nicky Hayen has enough faith in his own players' ability to handle the opposition. "We don't have a specific way to stop them," Hayen said on Monday when asked whether he had devised a plan to deal with Villa's new duo. "They have more than just Rashford and Asensio. Before they also had really good results. They have more quality now and that makes them stronger than before." Club Brugge were not necessarily expected to make it beyond the 36-team league phase, but squeezed through in 24th place, the last qualifying spot for the knockout phase play-offs. As well as Villa, they beat Austrian champions Sturm Graz and Portuguese champions Sporting, while also holding Celtic away and Juventus at home. This run is a continuation of improved performances in Europe in recent campaigns, which included reaching the Champions League last 16 in 2023. Then, like Villa, they got to the semi-finals of the Conference League last season. This is a club with a proud European history, with runs to the final of the UEFA Cup in 1976 and European Cup in 1978 both ending in defeat against Liverpool. Beat Villa over two legs and they could face Liverpool again in the quarter-finals, should the Anfield club beat Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16. 'Hard knocks' Hayen is the unlikely architect, having been named coach initially on an interim basis in March last year when the Norwegian Ronny Deila was sacked. He then led the Blue and Blacks to a fourth Belgian title in five years. Now aged 44, it is only three years ago that Hayen was managing Haverfordwest as they finished 10th in the very modest 12-team Welsh top flight. "I am enjoying the moment without thinking too far beyond that," Hayen reflected prior to the second leg against Atalanta. "I am trying to appreciate things because I have also had some hard knocks in my career, so I know it is all relative." His team are currently second in the Belgian Pro League after a 1-1 draw at Gent last weekend, with the gap to leaders Genk nine points. However, just two games remain before the league splits into play-offs, when points tallies from the regular season are halved. If there is pressure to win the domestic title, Club Brugge can go out and enjoy the tie against Villa. They will be led by captain Vanaken, the attacking midfielder who recently won the Golden Shoe award for Belgium's player of the year. Vanaken, 32, was described by Pep Guardiola as "fantastic" before Club Brugge lost 3-1 to Manchester City in January. The main goal threats, meanwhile, come from Greece winger Christos Tzolis, once of Norwich City, and Nilsson, as Brugge look to keep the tie alive going into the return at Villa Park on March 12. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.) Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
BBC News
03-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
From managing Haverfordwest to the Champions League
At the time it felt like a surprise appointment for semi-professional Haverfordwest County of the Cymru years on, and with the manager who joined them on New Year's Eve 2021 leading his current side into a Champions League knockout tie against Aston Villa, it seems scarcely Hayen was the first Belgian to manage in the Welsh Premier League and remains one of only a handful of non-British or non-Irish managers to do 44-year-old's ascent to the latter stages of Europe's top-tier competition with Club Brugge, who knocked out Europa League holders Atalanta in the play-offs, has been as rapid as it has been he is being touted as one of Europe's "hottest properties", and one pundit even suggested Hayen could be Arne Slot's replacement at of the 273 present at Bridge Meadow Stadium when Hayen recorded the biggest home win of his Haverfordwest tenure, a 6-1 thumping of Cefn Druids, would have predicted their manager would be in such conversation only a few years for Haverfordwest chairman Rob Edwards, who remains close friends with Hayen and shares regular messages with him, it comes as no surprise."The guy was a workaholic," recalls Edwards, whose house Hayen shared while living in west Wales."I would wake up at 8am and he'd be dressed, watching clips of opposition, doing analysis. I'd go to bed at 11pm and he'd be up, watching clips and doing analysis." Hayen, a former defender who played more than 400 games in Belgium and the Netherlands, reached Wales largely via coaching, technical director and caretaker manager roles in Belgium and Saudi major managerial breakthrough at Waasland-Beveren ended in Covid-impacted relegation to the Belgian second connected with Edwards via a mutual contact in Belgium and, backed by a Uefa Pro Licence and stellar presentation, wowed the board during the interview stage. "We just wanted to listen to every word he said," explains Edwards, who took over the club in 2020 and made Hayen his first managerial appointment the following year.'We decided he was the person we wanted and did all we could to get him. Fortunately, he turned up."The experience and professionalism Hayen brought to the part-timers had an immediate impact, taking them from second bottom to the verge of Europe in less than six months, implementing a possession-based, passing approach rarely witnessed in the Welsh top flight."You could see by the impact he had on the players," says Edwards. 'He didn't try to over-coach them, give them very detailed stats about the opposition, [or] very detailed analysis."He spent his time getting to know the players. He was very methodical. He asked about their welfare; he was worried about the mental side of the game as well."He managed to get a really amazing standard out of players we probably didn't realise had it in them."For me, it was a massive learning curve working with someone at that level, but he was very calm. He wasn't a shouter in the dressing room - he spoke and you listened."Despite not being the loudest, most aggressive, he had an aura - you just wanted to listen to him."It is to Hayen's credit that he slipped seamlessly into life in the Pembrokeshire market town, despite having to leave his family in Belgium."There are 14,000 people who live in Haverfordwest. It's a beautiful part of the world but a bit of a culture shock," says Edwards."He wasn't really too concerned about what was around him. He was focused on the football. He embraced the culture and didn't try to change anything drastically. But he was just obsessed with football."He is a family man, doesn't drink, doesn't use social media. He just gets his head down. He deserves everything he gets." Edwards knew the day would come, but he was hoping the club would get a little longer with Hayen at the in the summer of 2022, an approach arrived from Club Brugge to take over their Under-23s, Club NXT, it proved impossible for Hayen to turn down."It was a little bit of a surprise," says Edwards. "I wasn't expecting to have any dialogue with a club like Club Brugge."Hayen stepped in as first-team assistant after Scott Parker was sacked in 2023, before getting his chance as interim manager when Ronny Deila left last Hayen found former Sint-Truiden team-mate and ex-Liverpool and Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet to confide in.'When [Deila] stepped down with 10 games to go last season, Nicky stepped in and won nine of them and they came out of nowhere to win the league. That was a real statement," says was during that run that Jan Mulder, the former Ajax and Anderlecht striker turned pundit, made a prediction for Hayen's future."Next year [he] will play a series of matches in the Champions League, attracting the attention of Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern and Manchester," Mulder wrote in Humo, external in May 2024."Nasser Al-Khelaifi of Paris St-Germain also joins the fight for his signature at the last minute. Personally, I think that the great Nicky Hayen will replace Arne Slot from Zwolle as manager of Liverpool within two years."The first part of Mulder's premonition has proven to be true - Hayen's Brugge beat Villa, Sporting and Sturm Graz in the group phase, as well as drawing with Juventus and Belgian champions followed up by defeating Atalanta in both legs of their play-off for a 5-2 aggregate to that second leg in Italy, Hayen explained how before games he always talks to his mother, who passed away four years ago."What he has achieved in the Champions League is just incredible. Club Brugge over the years have had far better sides on paper, but he is getting an incredible tune out of them," says Edwards."He is a workaholic, fanatical and leads from the front. I guess that is why a lot of these younger players who are coming through are working so hard for him and having great success."Hayen's brief tenure in Wales also set the platform for Haverfordwest's future. In 2023, under Tony Pennock, they qualified for Europe for the first time in 19 years and only the second time in their history, reaching the Europa Conference League second qualifying round."It's great for the club to be associated with someone like that," says Edwards. "It seems like it is only the start for him. I would love for him to go on. I am sure there will be opportunities to manage even higher if he carries on."He is probably one of the hottest properties in Europe."
Asharq Al-Awsat
19-02-2025
- Sport
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Brugge's Champions League Progress No Surprise to Coach
Club Brugge's elimination of Serie A side Atalanta in the Champions League playoffs on Tuesday was described as a shock in some quarters but did not surprise their coach Nicky Hayen in the slightest. The Belgian side held a 2-1 advantage going into the second leg and romped to a 3-0 half-time lead in Italy to put the game beyond last season's Europa League winners. Atalanta pulled a goal back 35 seconds into the second half but were unable to narrow the deficit further, with Ademola Lookman having a penalty saved by Simon Mignolet on the hour mark. "We conceded that goal very quickly. Then we were lucky that Simon saved that penalty. We had to survive," said Brugge coach Hayen. "We knew in advance that the match would turn out like that and we could not put together any attacks. But I´m not going to blame my players. They all put their heads down and everyone did his part." Brugge were ahead after three minutes through teenager Chemsdine Talbi and he added a second midway through the half before Ferran Jutgla made it 3-0. "It doesn't surprise me. We have so much quality," Hayen added. "If you play football with courage and confidence, you can get chances. So I didn't have to pinch myself." Brugge will meet either Aston Villa or Lille in the last 16.
