Presser by the Olympiacos coach:
On Rony Lopes: “It is likely he will be in the list, but not for tomorrow’s fixture. He will have first to train, to show he is ready and fight for a place amongst his teammates. He will probably be in the list but in the first-leg squad”.
On the things we wants to see and the ones he didn’t see in the Ludogorets tie: “There are many things we want to improve, like the desire to win, our attaching performance and the transitions. Mainly it is about the desire; there are many things to fight for. I believe we will react positively tomorrow and this is what we expect from the team. The atmosphere in last trainings has been better and I anticipate that to show on the pitch. In relation to the tie in Bulgaria, I want to see the same will we displayed, while one man down, during the overtime“.
On Tiquinho: “Tiquinho is at the last stage of his recovery, completes certain training drills and we hope he will improve in the coming days, so that he is available to play after the break”.
On whether Vaclik and Onyekuru will be capped: “All players are available and it all boils down to the ones we shall select. They are all likely to play. Vaclik is heavily experienced, we deal him in and he is going to help a lot. He just couldn’t play in the first matches and we know he will help. Onyekuru is in the squad and included in our plans and he is available to play. Who will play, you shall see tomorrow”.
Presser by Socrates Papastathopoulos:
On the importance of the first leg: “We want to show, as early as in the first encounter, that we are the favorites although it’s a two-match tie. We need our fans’ help to show we can earn a good result”.
On the changes in the defense line: “We will see whom the coach will select. We have played many friendlies and official matches, we have worked hard in these 45 days and, regardless of the coach’s selections, each player is ready to give 100%”.
On the team’s anticipated reaction, his state of fitness and that of the team: «We will perform much better; in this last week we analysed many things, we will be better prepared and we keep on improving. I feel great, I lagged behind for a fortnight; a player like me must take the extra mile for the team to perform better”.
On the sidelined players: “This belongs to the past, but missing players is no excuse for Olympiacos. We have to analyse what we did wrong and move on. The team is better manned and we hope that, against a team we respect a lot, we will be able to show our fans that we are ready to qualify”.
On whether there is some laxity because of the difference in value with Slovan’s roster: “The more experienced footballers, we have to show something more but surely there is no loftiness or anything of the sort. We have analysed Slovan, we respect them and we are ready to do whatever it takes to earn this qualification”.
