Olympiacos’ coach, José Luis Mendilibar, in the press conference after the match against Lyon and the 2-0 defeat, spoke about the pressure from the French side and his team’s lack of aggressiveness.
Here is the detailed interview of the Basque coach:
What was missing from Olympiacos, aside from the goal? Also, do you agree that Olympiacos seemed to be one step behind Lyon?
“Yes, it’s true, Lyon was better than us, and we were under more pressure than in any other match so far. The opponent pressed us and pushed us close to our own box. We tried to push forward and bring the team higher up the field, but we couldn’t manage that, and the opponent pressed us and pinned us back, resulting in us defending quite close to our box without defending effectively. We lacked aggressiveness and the intention to push higher.”
The fact that you changed your system and played so defensively for the first time, does it mean that your main goal was to avoid conceding a goal?
“However, we played with two strikers. Indeed, we changed our system, but the idea wasn’t to change our style of play. We wanted to field an attacking team that would push as high up the field as possible, with the help of our two full-backs. But the truth is, the opponent was strong and pressed us, forcing us to play deeper than we had planned. We worked all week on getting everyone involved to have an attacking team, but we didn’t succeed; and in the chances we created, we didn’t score, while the opponent took advantage of the opportunities they created. Overall, despite our intention to be more aggressive, we didn’t manage to implement our plan, and Lyon was better than us, with more chances than we had.”
