The coach of Olympiacos, José Luis Mendilibar, spoke at the press conference after the end of the match against Fenerbahçe and the 3–2 victory of the “red-and-whites.”
In detail, the press conference of the Basque coach:
If you were told before the match that Olympiacos would win you would be satisfied. Do you feel now that an opportunity was missed for your team to get a good score in view of the second match?
Firstly, even if we had won 3–0, we would still have to play and be well to finish the qualification. Even if we had won 3–0 in the first match, the second may not go so well. We would have felt more confident; we now have a small advantage, and we should continue in earnest and be focused in the second game and go there to fight. No one has qualified from the first game, everyone knows that. The fact that we won makes us happy and satisfied.
A concentrated Olympiacos is a better team than Fenerbahçe. What went wrong in the second half? Also, Fenerbahçe’s coach more or less said that he is certain that his team will qualify.
We have nothing to say to him – since he is convinced after not having won today, I don’t have anything to say. It’s not the second half, everyone is talking about the second half, but the third goal was scored in the second half. Things changed since the penalty shootout because we gave the opponent power. We were affected by the penalty shootout, but things went well in the second half; we scored a third goal and had other opportunities to score, it wasn’t a bad half.
This is the fourth consecutive game that Olympiacos has made a great appearance, does this say anything about you?
We are taking a break in the weekend, and we will take advantage of it to rest, since the League gave us the opportunity in view of the rematch. We will rest and then work to deal with the second match in the same way.
Although days ahead, but since Retsos will miss the next match, have you been reflecting on who will replace him?
Anyone who receives as many cards does not play in the next match – it is a fact, it was a possibility, and it happened. We will play without Retsos, who is an important player for us. The problem is that we only have three registered players in this position; since we do not have six and only have three, we all know who will be playing.
You made the substitution in the 82nd minute. Was that because you had confidence in your team up to that point?
The team was winning 3–0 and playing very well. I don’t think I had to make a substitution at that point and our players seemed to be holding on. I had said before the match that it is very likely that we will come out of the match exhausted. The opponent made a lot of substitutions because they had a lot of injuries. Perhaps I was a little late, but I had not thought about making substitutions until the second goal because things seemed to be going well.
