Coach José Luis Mendilibar highlighted the importance of Olympiacos’ first goal at the end of the first half and discussed his team’s overall performance.
Below is the full press conference from the Basque coach:
Was Olympiacos’ best performance this season due to several players hitting high levels of performance? And how important was the goal just before halftime?
I definitely think we started the match well, but then it became more balanced. The goal came at the perfect time, just before the end of the first half. It helped us a lot because it allowed us to start the second half strong, with a lead. I believe we were superior in every aspect after that. So yes, I think the goal came at the ideal moment.
This is the second match where Rodinei has played as a winger. Are you considering making this his permanent position? And is there any update on Chiquinho ahead of the match against Panathinaikos?
We don’t have any news on Chiqunho yet; we’ll know more after tomorrow’s medical exams. As for Rodinei, he’s an offensive-minded player, and he’s happy playing in that role, which brings a lot to our team. Attacking suits him, and it makes him feel good, so this system has worked well for us.
At the beginning of October, teams that haven’t had to play in qualifiers usually start hitting their stride. Olympiacos just had their best performance – was that a coincidence? And Mouzakitis, who we no longer consider a kid, is becoming a regular starter for Olympiacos.
It was just one game, so we can’t draw conclusions from a single match. Things went our way today, but that doesn’t mean future matches will be even better just because we played well now. A lot depends on the opponent. Against Braga, everything worked as we planned, but Sunday’s game could be completely different. Our goal is always to play like this. Everyone -players and fans- knows what we’re trying to do, and when we execute it, the result is good for us. As for Mouzakitis, he’s still young, so we can keep calling him a ‘kid’ for now.
Did the goal at the end of the first half give Olympiacos the boost they needed for the second half, or was it your instructions to play so aggressively after halftime?
The first goal definitely came at a good time because we were under pressure from our opponent at that point. However, our approach is always to press high and recover the ball. Scoring a goal always helps any team, and it certainly helped us here.
