“We achieved our original goal, which was to qualify to the group stage. We had two weeks to prepare a pair of really tough encounters. It wasn’t easy to deliver. In this match we won a fair and well-deserved qualification despite the fact we had difficulties in the first minutes. We had no way to properly reply to set pieces. We are not happy with the way we approached the entire 90 minutes. We were better in overtime and it was fair that we qualified. Arouca gave us a hard time in this match, not in the first leg. They got their own merits and we suffered great. However, we achieved our goal since we made it to the group stage”.
On whether Dominguez should have been in the starting XI: “When a match is over, one may break such questions down. But we cannot put all the blame on Fortounis, because, as a whole, we were very bad at controlling ball possession or pass it properly. We are not satisfied in general with our team tonight. We thought that Fortounis should have been used due to this importance for the club. Nevertheless, we identified the difficulties that we came across as a team. Bringing Chori in meant better control on the ball. It positively affected our play and showed that bringing him in was the right thing to do. During the season, we will have plenty of opportunities to discuss who of these two will play”.
On whether he expected the match to have been so difficult: “We expected tonight that we would have performed better. We are not satisfied with the way we played. The opponent’s set pieces, and other situations, gave us a hard time. We are satisfied with the result. We won Arouca twice, we turned a bad result around and we were successful in having 3 young players performing well. All these leave us satisfied. We are not satisfied with the way the match unfolded, but with the mere fact that we achieved our goal”.
On what he wants to fix: “The first thing we have to do is to analyze both these matches and draw conclusions about the areas of corrections. We have two weeks ahead to work on them, since there will be a delay as a result of the championship being postponed. This is something we have to avail ourselves of, in order to improve things and convey our ideas to the players. So, let’s have the roster completed, give the squad its final picture and work”.
On whether young players will be given more opportunities: “Coaches have to adjust to the circumstances they find themselves in. in the past, I used to have this reputation of a coach who uses young players. I did use them and it was actually a risk. It was a et for Olympiacos. Until now, we got some positive conclusions out of their performance. They will get their time, we need more experienced players in other tournaments, yet these children have shown a asset of skills, and there I still a way ahead”.
