After scoring a brace in Feyenoord Rotterdam's 3-2 home win against Marseille in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final showdown on Thursday night, Cyriel Dessers can't contain his joy.
On 18 minutes, Dessers put the home team ahead with a low shot past Steve Mandanda.
Following that, the Nigerian international took advantage of a poor back pass from Caleta-Car to score the game-winning goal just seconds after the interval.
“Maybe I’m not such a bad striker after all, hey”, Dessers told Sporza after the game.
“Ah, it’s a nice side effect, that’s all.”
“It went in all directions, but it was fantastic to play this match. As a child you dream of being able to play in full stadiums. The feeling of scoring in such matches is almost indescribable. And I do twice tonight, in an important semi-final against Olympique Marseille .”
“We have stayed true to our style and we have not collapsed, we have been doing it like that all season. We know that there is a high risk factor behind that, but it also pays off.
“We have been able to force Marseille to make mistakes. were not great, but you feel that that flash can come to them at any time,” concludes Dessers.
It's worthy to note that the Nigerian was left out of the AFCON 2021 squad despite his red hot form during that period.
The 27-year-old, who is on loan from Belgian Pro League club Club Brugge, is now the competition's leading scorer with ten goals.
The Nigerian international has also been nominated for the Player of the Week award in the Europa Conference League.
Dessers will compete for the individual trophy against teammate Luis Sinisterra, Leicester City's Ademola Lookman, and AS Roma's Lorenzo Pellegrini.
