Olympiacos head coach José Luis Mendilibar spoke to the media following his team’s victory in Astana over Kairat Almaty.
Below in detail what the experienced coach had to say:
Olympiacos often wins and you still find things to criticise. Did you have any complaints about this match? And how much did you miss getting a Champions League win with Olympiacos?
I’d been missing a win like this with Olympiacos, but also in my career in general, because I had coached quite a few matches in the Champions League without ever winning one. We delivered a complete performance and dominated the match, creating plenty of chances. Our opponent never really threatened us. We had clear opportunities to score more, but their goalkeeper had an excellent game. We were solid in every area and we’re happy about that. If I had one complaint, it would be that we didn’t score more. But overall, we’re satisfied with the victory.
After the goal, the many chances, and the two shots off the woodwork, did the worst-case scenario cross your mind at all? Football can be cruel.
There’s always that fear – when the second goal doesn’t come, the opponent can suddenly appear in your box. That’s what happened today as well, but they still couldn’t really threaten us. We’ve seen this story before and we’ve paid the price in matches where we didn’t get that second goal. But it is what it is – if we need to suffer a bit in order to win, we’ll take it.
Does this win boost your confidence moving forward, especially ahead of the match against Bayer Leverkusen?
We need to take things step by step. Just because we got our first win doesn’t mean we’ll always win, or that every match will go smoothly. We have league and cup obligations before then. After Christmas we’ll return to European competition, and when that moment comes, we’ll focus on Europe again.
Does this match give you extra confidence for what’s next? And a message to the fans who supported you in such numbers to help secure this win?
Our confidence was never lacking. Even when results weren’t going our way, our performances were good. Tonight, we didn’t just win, we played well. Confidence wasn’t the issue. As for our fans, what they do is incredible. They travelled so many hours, in such cold conditions, and we could hear them from the first minute to the last. We have no words. They always support us, and they did the same tonight. Their help is huge.
A comment on Kairat Almaty’s performance tonight?
In the first half we may have surprised them – they weren’t expecting us to press that high, and they struggled to get out of their own half. The game opened up in the second half. Either way, it was a match where both teams had real desire to win, and we were the ones who took it.
