Paunovic looks forward to Club América test after “an epic night”

After eliminating Atlas in the Clausura 2023 quarterfinals, Chivas coach, Veljko Paunovic is anxious to keep perspective and labelled his side as “heroes” after an epic night at the Akron Stadium where a second half headed goals from Sepulveda was enough to see the ‘Sacred Flock’ progress to the next stage of the competition.

Grateful to the fans

“Apart from being happy in progressing, I want to thank our fans and our players for that fantastic energy and the synergy with the team. I’m delighted to see that the players continue to grow and improve, achieving goals, but we have not done anything yet.

The Serbian added, “We celebrate today and prepare for the next Clásico starting tomorrow. Step by Step. Today is an epic moment for this group and the culmination of hard work”.

Match analysis

“I think that from the beginning we had a good level of intensity, something that we lacked in the first leg, we lacked being ourselves in the first game, but today from the beginning it was seen that the group was very good. I was also please to see us score from a set piece. I liked many things, but in the last few minutes we suffered too much, I think due to the exhaustion and anxiety that everyone was panicking because of what was at stake”.

Atlas quality

On Atlas, Paunovic stated, “I think it has been an even tie and I also want to congratulate Atlas for their desire and his way of competing. They were a difficult and worthy opponent and at the end created a series of decent chances”.

America up next

“As of tomorrow, we’ll begin to prepare for the semi-final games but it’s key that the players recover so that they can have the capacity to absorb information about what lies ahead”.

Finally, he applauded the fact that his team have qualified for the 2024 Concacaf Champions League and will participate irrespective of how the Clausura pans out due to their combined points total over the past two short seasons.