Lucescu: “When we played freely we turned the game around”

In one of the best games of the year, PAOK managed to bend him Mars with 3-2 and stay alive in the battle for 3rd place.

After the match, Razvan Lucescu he spoke at the press conference about the factors that tipped the scales in favor of the “doubleheader”, while focusing on the liberated football played by the team in the second half.

What he said in detail:

For the goal that PAOK conceded before the end of the half and if it waited for the reaction of its players in the second half: “The first half was a bit strange, we had chances to score. We deserved a bit more in the first in terms of the score, I can’t tell you what we discussed at the break, but we said to play freely and managed to turn the result in our favour. Two or three players were pressing and the rest were not following in the pressing, but we corrected that and it helped us turn the picture around in the second half.”

On whether he can build in the next few games and the season on the determination the players showed today: “It is obvious that the team has the possibility to react, but in football to have a mature group you have to be perfect from game to game without making mistakes like we did today. This is connected both to the game against AEK in the 8th minute and to the one against Olympiakos which we won and lost in the end. You have to go through many stages when there is this transition period. To build a mature group you have to manage these accidents in quotations and they are less during the season.”

On whether this win gives the team a boost ahead of the final: “Let’s go game by game, prepare from tomorrow for the game against Panathinaikos, taking one step at a time. And this result is very important for us, today we didn’t have high level players like Ingasson, Augusto and Narey, we have to bring them back to have a different consistency”.

For the large number of goals conceded by PAOK in the play-offs: “It doesn’t bother me, I know that a team that wants to win games has to concede as few goals as possible or be close anyway”.

On the players’ mistakes and if they trouble him: “It’s a matter of concentration for the whole duration of the matches and the ability to keep the concentration. On the one hand this makes me angry, on the other I understand how players regain this concentration through situations that exist. I didn’t mention it before but it’s important, whether we can handle the pressure when something is at stake, we played more freely when we had practically nothing tangible, the pressure levels got high and we couldn’t handle it. If we beat AEK we would be in second place, we didn’t manage it properly. In any case, such a victory can boost your confidence for the 90, 95′, 100′ of the match.”

On whether the joint presence of Constantelia – Tyson and the condition of the former after the injury is a puzzle for him: “Considering that he was out after the game against Panathinaikos and he was out today, Tyson probably has a problem. There are different needs in games, Constantelias providing on the axis and Tyson out wide freeing up Rafa Soares. Tyson has a more rational approach, Constantelias on the other hand has a bit more madness in his movements, excessive self-confidence that does not translate in a negative way, it gives him energy and continuity to create all these situations. It will improve with games with situations like today’s and Wednesday’s, it’s only a matter of time before he gets to the level he needs to be at.”