The National Team of Hope did not manage to start their obligations in the qualifiers for EURO 2025 ideally, staying in a 1-1 draw with Belarus at Leoforo.
After the end of the match, the “blue and white” coach, Nikos Papadopoulosaddressed the problems presented by his team, stressing that it still needs a lot of work to reach the desired level.
In detail what the coach of Ethniki Elpidon said:
“It’s a bad result, since we wanted to start with a win. I think at the beginning of the game we had a problem to adapt and so the opponent had a chance but then we went well scoring the game and with a clear mind and better tactics we could have scored a second goal.
What we knew is that the opponent is a tall team and from a static phase we accepted the equaliser. Which should not have been done and we should have had better discipline. After 60′-70′ there was a match which was very open. We had problems in transitions and some chances to score but I would say the picture was not good in terms of the cohesion of the team and the football they played.
What I know for sure is that it is a new team that needs a lot of work, there is little time but it needs a lot of work to have cohesion and be able to win matches. We are saddened by the result but what we have to do is to keep the morale of the children high in order to have a better continuity”.
For team goals: “What we want is definitely in June when we have some days where we will be with the children, to work and for them to understand the way we want to play. Definitely to be a tighter team, not to concede an easy goal and not have that image of the second half in a rodeo game without a center and the players know that this will cost them if they are not disciplined in their game. So in June let’s work and we’ll see after September the game with Andorra and all the rest”.
Source: Sport Fm
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