Club Brugge boss issues 'belief' claim ahead of Aston Villa return

The visitors head into Wednesday’s last-16 second leg with the scoreline and history firmly against them, as they look to become only the second team in the history of the competition to overturn a two-goal first leg deficit away from home.

But while accepting they are major underdogs after last week’s 3-1 defeat in Belgium, Hayen insisted his players have not given up hope.

Brugge have already created one shock in this season’s competition with their 5-2 aggregate play-off round win over Atalanta, which included a 3-1 second leg triumph in Italy.

Hayen said: “If we did not believe in it, we would not be here. 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.”

Manchester United’s 2019 win over Paris Saint-Germain is the only time in Champions League history a team has won a tie after losing the first leg at home by two goals.

Hayen continued: "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 last week, 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.

“We have to win. There is no pressure. No-one is giving us a chance. It is like a bonus match but we are going to go and try to win.”