Olympiacos coach Jose Louis Mendilibar held a press conference after the end of the Maccabi Tel Aviv match in G. Karaiskakis.
Words by the Basque coach in detail:
How difficult does it get from now on given this result? Also, what went bad in the match?
After the draw, we might have gotten a bit confused; I had said that given that Maccabi made it so far, there is no way they are in par with the rest of the teams. Also, they had been qualified before us, so this perhaps was a sign they were a better team than us as well. We set out very poorly and the moment we were after our second, we conceded a second goal. In the second half, we tried for a better outcome but we failed; so, we have a heavy load and this scoreline is hard to overturn in the return match, however this never the way I tend to think. In the first half, our opponents were better than us, we found it hard to be creative but, most importantly, we were poor in defense and our opponents caught us by surprise. Now things have become difficult to us. We have been in a kind of a honeymoon with a streak of wins; so, this is a match to use as a lesson for the future.
Did you expect to have such an awful first 10 minutes? Also, what was the reason of the mistakes committed? Was it a matter of psychology or poor focus?
As I said, we set out poorly in the match. Our objective was to be offensive and win all second balls. We conceded a goal in their first attacking effort and that ruined our balance. We managed to cut their lead, yet our opponents caught us once more by surprise and scored a third goal. We were not good; we couldn’t win second balls. We have to watch this match and become better for all the matched to follow, not just ahead of the return fixture.
You spoke about defensive mistakes. Were they purely individual mistakes or tactical ones by the team? And to what extent may they be corrected?
Even if there were individual mistakes, it was the entire team and our defensive performance overall to blame. We had large distances between us and we didn’t try to win loose balls. There were individual mistakes as well, but generally speaking, our side did not go after second balls and this was the case with the entire team; it wasn’t one person only who did not perform well.
Do you now believe more in winning the championship given the team’s comeback or in the miracle of qualifying over Maccabi?
Hope never dies, there is always hope. Now, however, we want to focus on the Panathinaikos fixture. This is our next opponent. We will give all we got to win this match and stay alive in the fight for the championship. Once that match will be over, then we will concentrate on the Maccabi tie; our rationale will be to make one step at a time. And not score 3 goals in a row immediately. We have to score the first one, then the second one and get anything else we can. Certainly, we will go and claim all our chances.
