After the end of the Genk match, Olympiacos coach Diego Martinez hosted a press conference and expressed his satisfaction for the win and the effort the entire team had put.
In detail, follows below the full Diego Martinez Press Conference:
You couldn’t have done it better even if you had been the director of your debut. So, apart from this professional win and the good defensive skills, what are you left with this match?
I would like to thank our supports because they played an important role for us to grab the win. They helped us a lot and, in the minutes, we felt tired, they stood by our side and helped us find with the courage needed to go on. I liked their fighting spirit, personality and aggressiveness, all these have been important elements and we had to make use of the great atmosphere in the stadium and we have been perfect since kick off. I think we had the best chances to score with Biel and Masouras. Both were classic ones. I am satisfied by their effort we put on, we made some mistakes and we also spend some time in which we were confused and this is something we have to improve. This procedure always applies, we always need to improve and let us not forget that this are top flight matches and we have to respond fully.
Your team did half the job. What does it take to get the qualification next week?
Firstly, I hope the final result will be the same and keeping a clean sheet. That would be a good start. We also have to improve many things in our game. We responded well in defense but there have been moments of mistakes. Let me not forget Carvalho’s opportunity, along with the previous ones I mentioned; but we have to pay attention to being solid. Let us also not forget that we played against a strong team that may make things difficult to any opponent. Certainly, there are things for us to improve. In such qualifying rounds, one might do half the job but the job is not done yet; one has to finish what was started.
Any first idea about Fortounis’ injury and that of Retsos? Also, tell us a few words about the new role assigned to Masouras as a striker.
Our team gave it all, they gave everything they got; it wasn’t just Fortounis. It was Mady and Retsos who felt exhausted because they gave it all. What we always want is to make use of our players and we all know that Masouras, both as a player and an individual personality, has an ever-amazing attitude and we wanted to use his qualities. He’s played as a center forward in the past and he got the energy and the desire to help, and we tried to make full use of it. The same applies to Alexandropoulos. They are players who can play in many positions and depending on how tough the opponent, we are set to use them whenever this might be required. In the last 30 minutes, the overtime was too much, the match became crazy and our side needed the energy to put up with that. So, our sub did work out because Giorgos was given the opportunity to score and helped create space between their players.
