In detail:
Was justice made, even in a stressful manner? Did Olympiacos get what the team deserved since the beginning of the competition?
“Indeed, it was fair that we won and qualified given the fact that we had control and were better for 80 minutes. We have had many chances to score an earlier goal. We deserved that qualification. It was a beautiful match with all those elements that make football so beautiful. The final result was fair and, all in all, we experienced an amazing evening”.
In 88’ when El-Arabi netted the spot kick, what did you feel? The team was out of the UEL for 88 minutes, although it didn’t deserve to.
“Feelings were beautiful. The moment was truly amazing. I think we deserved to qualify, we played like a team and created many opportunities. This team will drive us crazy and give us a hard attack. We performed well and deserved to go through. It was so tough watching so many chances being wasted. Happily, we managed to qualify. I think our side did many great things on the pitch and had more than 20 attempts. We were worth qualifying because we produced a good display and we have proven that we deserve to be here. I am happy we reached our goal and the team will keep on playing in Europe because it deserves to”.
Your comment on the stadium atmosphere.
“It gave me the goose bumps. That’s how I can describe our fans’ stance. Anyone who made it to Karaiskakis this evening experienced something absolutely magical. The atmosphere was amazing and the evening tuned out great both for Olympiacos and Greece”.
You have been a player but pressure always weighs more on the coach. How many years did this match and last year’s one against Milan take off your life? You are only two European victories away from breaking Dusan Bajevic record.
“Truth is that Olympiacos does take years off my life! It is fantastic coaching Olympiacos. I love this club a lot, I’d rather live some years less but watch the team working well. As for your second question, our objective is to notch more victories. This is the goal. We now have to wait for the draw and check in what state other teams are. Too many are the factors to determine whether we will qualify. One might describe the Europa League as a mini Champions League. Our objective is to get more wins and go through”.
You mentioned before the team’s total attempts and ball possession. All in all, for such a well-trained squad and despite playing without Fortounis and Valbuena, don’t you think it’s a pity it took them 27 attempts to score one goal?
“We have to keep on working, that’s the only thing we can do. Generally speaking, this was an out-and-out performance on our part. We are proud of our team spirit. Creating goal-scoring chances is the hard bit. Indeed, we built 27 attempts in total, yet we do have to work to improve what we lack. Our team spirit is an important asset and the fact we struggle until the last minute. We had many chances with Masouras, Podence, El-Arabi and Camara. Everybody contributed in the build-up and what we had poor finishes. So, when one works in the right way, I think there is no other way but to be successful“.
If we asked you to take stock of your Champions League campaign, could it be better, worse of did it go as expected?
“I think that the Champions League is a competition where details matter a lot. They cost us some point. We played well against Tottenham and Bayern. When one faces such teams, one is not allowed to make mistakes because there is no forgiveness. Against Crvena zvezda in Beograd, we were very good for 70 minutes, but mistakes were made both by us and the referee. We are satisfied given our performance. We must also recognize reality when one team is completely different to them. Our commitment to our fans was to continue playing in Europe. We will face teams of great quality. We worked the best way we could. We played against teams of such caliber and we are proud of that”.
Against Tottenham, the club scored twice with very few attempts. Against Bayern, they scored twice with few attempts. What we witnessed tonight was exactly the opposite. Is stress perhaps a limiting factor for your players?
“Let me make clear that I didn’t consider our PAOK match a ‘final’. But, when the fans consider it a ‘final’, we have to behave accordingly. There have been many matches in which we created many chance and scored very few goals. Nobody likes that. Not being effective is a disillusionment for players. This does not happen in matches when there ιs pressure. We have played many ‘finals’, like against Krasnodar and Basaksehir. Then, we scored many goals and were sharp. Sharpness do not correlate that much with pressure; however, the team cannot be that productive when pressure is so high”.
