Olympiacos set foot in Serbia ahead of their Thursday fixture (22:00 Greek time) against Maccabi Tel Aviv in their second leg of the UEFA Conference League last-16.
The pre-match press conference was held by the red-and-white outfit’s coach Jose Louis Mendilibar and Olympiacos footballer Santiago Hezze.
The presser in detail:
Coach, do miracles happen?
As you said, it is a miracle we are talking about. It can happen and it will be a miracle if it happens. First and foremost, we have to make good to ourselves for both our poor results against Maccabi and Panathinaikos, just before the championship break. We have to claim a good result and this is our objective, as well as to satisfy ourselves by means of a good display.
Have you thought of the match plan? Do you have rational plan to follow or will you try to take risks?
Just as Hezze said before, the only thing we must not do it lose our mind and make a hasty beginning in the match in the belief that we can win it in a few minutes. I spoke to my players and I told them we had conceded 3 goals within 7-8 minutes, and this is not something we should think of. The match lasts 90 minutes and within this time we have to put on a comprehensive display and, until the referee’s final whistle, anything can happen. Certainly, we will be rational, but we will also have to take some risks.
What the take away lesson of both defeats;
There are lessons and conclusions to be drawn from both those matches. When I took on Olympiacos, the most important match we then had to play was against PAOK; we won and then we had to qualify against Ferencváros, which we also managed to do. We did it by being well organized and performing. Perhaps we grew a bit complacent in our belief that everything had been solved. This is the teaching we have taken: one wins all matches if ones performs well and this is why we have to get to work again. Should we do that, then we will be able to win all matches.
These have been your first defeats in Olympiacos; in their aftermath, how did you prepare the team mentally?
The damage following both these matches have been more mental than physical. We were hurt by the fact that we started to doubt what we may achieve and we felt as if all we had achieved, it was now lost. What we have to change in our mentality -as I discussed with my players- is for the players to believe in their own value, that we can outperform our opponents and to believe in ourselves again. We have done that in the past and we can do it again. The fact that both previous matches went sour doesn’t mean that everything we had done to earn wins before is now lost. [We have to] believe in ourselves again and work in the same way we did prior to our past 2 defeats.
What is the quality you want to see more in your side in the match?
It’s a difficult situation; I want to see my team giving their all, believing in themselves and playing the best they can. If we do this, then we have good chances both to win and even to qualify.
A comment for the U-19 team that made it to the Youth League final 4. They are all kids you have already seen.
I have met and seen these kids, although I don’t know much since I am not that long in the club. I have seen many of them mainly in Olympiacos B’; I want to congratulate and wish them the best in the next steps of the competition.
Do you see this match as a restart for Olympiacos for the championship playoffs?
Of course, we see it like that and we want to claim our chances, but mainly we want to make a fresh start for the coming championship fixtures to claim the title. This is how football is. It’s not only wins and great performances. There are also defeats, poor performances and stepping backwards. For us, this has been a step back, now we want to bounce back and, following the break, win the title in the playoffs.
Hezze: “The best way to reply on the pitch”
Following the first-leg result, do you believe this is a huge challenge for you?
Certainly, I believe so; not just for Olympiacos but for the entire Olympiacos organization, this is a major challenge and, as you said, this is so even more for us, the players. We will have to begin the match with patience and calmness, without losing our mind, so that we can overturn this negative first-leg result.
Following the Maccabi and Panathinaikos fixtures, Olympiacos did not seem to be at a good state. Is the team properly prepared for this match?
After both negative results, we talked inside the team and we have recognized both matches meant also heavy defeats. If we had done our job in a better way, we wouldn’t have suffered such heavy defeats and we would have had more chances to turn the tie around. To exit this bad period for us, we have to produce a good display and try to overturn the first-leg result. We see this match as our obligation to change this situation against us. We have shown, before those 2 matches, that we can do it and we have been in great shape.
You have been with the team since the beginning of the season; what is the reason of those ups and downs?
I truly believe it’s hard to explain what is happening, but the best thing is to see things on the grass. Prior to the Maccabi and Panathinaikos fixtures, we had a streak of good matches with positive results and good displays. It is hard to explain to the fans but in those bad matches, our performance was not that problematic and it was not reflected in those heavy defeats if one considers the times we suffered because of our defending and the chances we have created. The best way to explain that to the fans is to put on a great display, to turn the tie around and show that we are not in such a poor shape as it showed in our last 2 matches.
From January ’23 to date, you have been capped in 72 matches. Do you feel all this fatigue?
Truth, is I have not counted the matches. I haven’t realized who many matches they were, but this is part of our profession and football. I love being capped in all matches; I don’t want to miss a single one. This is why I don’t think of physical fatigue, and I just focus on my psychological state and mental conditioning for the match.
