‘A GOOD PERFORMANCE AND A GOOD RESULT’

After the pain of recent weeks, Feyenoord showed it could live with a high-quality European side at De Kuip Wednesday and Dirk Kuyt for one was happy to bask in the glory of victory for once. But the Maassiders’ top-scorer is not ready to rest on his laurels. ‘We now have the difficult job of getting nine points from the last three league games [before the winter break],’ emphasised the striker. ‘The win against Schalke was an enormous mental boost.’

Kuyt was unable to hide his delight at the win, smiling like a Cheshire cat. ‘We finally put in a good performance and got a good result; that’s a great feeling. Shinji played a big part in that. With a fresh Ono as our leader the team played well.’ But there were words of self-criticism from the striker to go with the grin. ‘I should have made it 3-1 before the break. That would have been a psychological blow and the match would have changed completely.’