Olympiacos failed to leave France with a positive result after their 2-1 defeat to Nantes in the opening day of the UEFA Europa League group stage.
In the post-match press conference, the coach of the red-and-white outfit pointed out the bitter taste left by the way the match developed.
Quotes by the Spanish coach.
What is the taste left with you by the result since Olympiacos conceded once again just before the end?
An utterly bitter aftertaste.
What didn’t go well overall and more specifically in attack, because despite the goal scored, that was no result of a well-built offensive play.
Indeed, we got off on the wrong foot and although we got the space, we failed to properly exploit it. We should have advanced and claim the chances we should. Also, we lost many personal one-on-ones and that made things risky for us. After the break, in half of the second part, to be exact, we attacked with personality, we were better in individual duels and built some good plays. However, in the last 5 minutes of the match, we had lots of problems on the left side, where he had fresh feet and should have dealt with those situations better.
About Inbeom Hwang, can you tell whether he will be fit for the coming fixture? What do you think about the future in the group since there is the Freiburg match coming up next?
Whenever we have a European match to play, then it will be an important fixture and a truly tough one. Hwang could not play because he hadn’t recovered from a hit in a previous match. He did try, he made everything possible to be ready, but it was not possible for him to be capped. Hover, I am very happy with the work of our midfielders; they showed character and composure.
What is the reason for Olympiacos conceding goals in the last minutes of a match? We suspect you do not tell the squad to fall back.
It is not my instruction to fall back. In the end, there was a foul committed on Aboubakar and we had no player to defend when they scored their second goal. Our side had fitness issues in previous matches but I believe we showed some improvement. We had players suffering minor injuries, like Aboubakar, Rodrigues and Valbuena. And we also have players who had no pre-season training with the team and, therefore, they have stamina-related issues. It is very important to have good stamina in order to put up with high-paced matches like tonight’s.
