Lucescu: “Today the VAR and the referee were at the best level with the exception of my suspension”

In detail, what he said at the press conference:

For the victory over Mars: “We prepared the game to play in a different way, but in the first half we had no sense of the game and no tension. We conceded the goal very early from Palma’s beautiful finish. There we lost our confidence and Aris was better than us. In the second half we had a completely different reaction, confidence. We played with more intensity and aggression. We discussed and decided that we should not lose this game. It measured the spirit of the team and we managed to get the result. In the first half we missed a lot of easy mistakes. Aris won balls and won many attacking transitions as that is one of his strengths.”

About whether he threw a bottle at the stand: “I never did. We received many plastic water bottles and glasses. I am a very balanced person and I always tell the truth. I made a move but I never flew into the stands of the fans of Mars”.

For the changes he made: “We had a difficult, I would say complicated, week. We had problems with viruses and absences from training. The spirit of the football players counted overall in the game. We wanted to put players who would have a different perspective and would not appear affected by the score.”

For the penalty phase to Schwab: “It was a clear penalty. The Aris footballer misread the phase and kicked our footballer instead of the ball. Today the VAR and the referee were at their best with the exception of my own dismissal. He told me I threw something back into the stands but it’s not true.”