McInnes: Kilmarnock have ‘more than a fighter’s chance’ of European upset

Bullish Derek McInnes believes his Kilmarnock side have “more than a fighter’s chance” of pulling off an upset in the second leg of their Europa League second qualifying round tie away to Cercle Brugge.

The first leg at Rugby Park ended 1-1 and more than 2,000 Killie fans have arrived in Belgium dreaming of progress to the third qualifying round, where they would face Norwegian side Molde FK or Danish outfit Silkeborg IF.

McInnes stressed that Brugge remain favourites to go through but he had full faith that his team could pull off a famous result in the Jan Breydel Stadium.

“Based on the first leg, I think it will be very tight and competitive,” the Killie boss said at his pre-match media briefing on Wednesday evening.

“Cercle Brugge are favourites, especially with having the second leg at home, but we feel as if we’ve got more than a fighter’s chance.

“It now becomes a 90-minute game, a one-off cup game and we’re prepared to go the full way if need be, whether it’s extra-time and fitness. We trust our fitness, we trust what we do and we’re looking forward to it.”

McInnes feels Killie have shown enough consistency over a sustained period of time to be confident about their prospects.

“You don’t get through these type of European ties without two big performances,” he said. “One performance isn’t enough. You need to perform in the second leg as well.

“I remind the players of the fact that only Rangers and Celtic have beaten us since December 2. Almost five-and-a-half months of football and the two best teams in our country are the only teams that have beaten us.

“We know how to compete and make things difficult.

“I feel we’ve got the performance in us to win the game and it will need to be a top performance to beat this team.

“Brugge are favourites for a reason, they trade on a different level to us. They’ve got obvious advantages over us but I trust my players and I know what I’m going to get.”

McInnes’ optimism levels are heightened by the availability of Marley Watkins after last season’s top scorer missed the first leg with a groin issue.

“Marley’s travelled, he’s fit,” said the manager. “He’s trained the last couple of days.

“He was close last week but he was playing a bit of catch-up from not having been with us from day one of pre-season so I was mindful that if I exposed to him the game last week, he could have missed two or three games.

“The fact he is available for tomorrow is a huge boost for us and everybody else who was available last week is here tonight.”