Reda below details of Olympiacos coach Presser following the match in London:
On whether the team failed to do justice to itself: “I truly think that the first leg’s 2nd and 3rd goal we conceded kept us away from qualifying. Today we won fair and square. I have nothing to comment on our player’s dedication. We made a great performance and gave it all. we had the belief and did our outmost. Had we not played in Athens like we did, we would have qualified”.
On Olympiacos’ mindset: “This means that Olympiacos is a top club that can look all opponents straight in the eye. It was not easy because we faced a great team. Arsenal is one of the Europa League contenders. This is how our future shall be and we have won Europe’s respect”.
On Ba: “We haven’t talked about. We will have a chat the two of us, tomorrow”.
On his stocktaking: “I think our European journey has been affected by the number of times we had players sidelined. Initially, we had the hit by Covid when we lost both Camara and Ba. We then missed El Arabi and Hassan. We also had Valbuena sidelined in a critical match and important defensive players off in another. Then Randjelovic and Socrates is a newcomer. Our European endeavor has been compromised by the players absent due to Covid or injuries. In these competitions, it is details that make the difference “.
On whether he would have opted for 3 stoppers in the Faliro leg: “Last week we couldn’t since Ba was not available. We didn’t have to play that offensively. So, circumstances were different so we could not have seen the outcome. Today, we had Ba and should score goals. We wanted Kostas and Giorgos to hit from the flanks and use the running skills of Olega and Thanassis. This matched called for different things. You haven’t seen this formation before because we have never been is such a situation and we had to take the risk. The conditions allowed for that and we had to use this system”.
