Olympiacos head coach José Luis Mendilibar, spoke at the press conference following the 3-1 defeat to PAOK at Toumba and pointed to his team’s mistakes.
In detail, what the Olympiacos coach said:
Where do you think the game was decided? Was it the missed chances or defensive mistakes? Because the flow of the match suggested Olympiacos were the better side and more threatening.
You’ve said it yourself. In the first half, it was one of the easiest halves we’ve played at this ground. It looked like we would go ahead, we were in control, yet the only thing we managed was to equalise after conceding. In the second half as well, we looked like the team more likely to win, the more threatening side, but in the end we gifted them two goals. When you hand out gifts like that, a team like PAOK will punish you. We leave with the feeling that, based on our performance, we should have won, but at this level, mistakes cost you.
What you’re describing is that Olympiacos let themselves down. After this defeat, what is the realistic target for your team?
We’ll focus on this match and what happened tonight. We played to win, but we handed the game to the opponent. We didn’t take our chances and gave them the opportunity to score. There’s nothing more to say right now. It’s clear that AEK have the upper hand.
Obviously, the title is always the main target for Olympiacos, but second place also secures a strong European spot. Is that something you’re thinking about?
Let tonight pass first. We can’t talk about next season’s European campaign right now. We’re level on points with PAOK, who are also aiming for second place. Let’s focus on tonight’s match, and then we’ll see what comes next.
You’ve faced PAOK four times this season and haven’t beaten them. Do they have something you can’t deal with?
It’s true, the results speak for themselves. But every match is a different story. Even against the same opponent, each game unfolds differently. In the cup match, PAOK clearly beat us comfortably. The last time we came here, we were on top for 60 minutes before they came back. Tonight was a different kind of game again, a different defeat. We don’t question the results, but we can’t analyse all these matches in the same way.
