Deligiannis: “In Terasa they were celebrating after the first match which they lost by a small margin”

Apollon Smyrnis doubled its victories against Terrified, also winning in Barcelona after the match in Serafio and won a historic cup. It is the first European title of the Light Brigade, since he lifted it Challenger Cup and the team coach, Nikos Deligiannisspoke to News Bulletin 247 and the show “Drown the swashbuckler” about this great achievement.

He stood at the pivotal points that brought this cup, saying among other things that after the end of the first final, in Terrified they were celebrating the defeat with a goal difference, while at Apollo there was gloom over the fact that the lead was lost at the end of the match.

“We don’t have time to sit, we have training shortly, we also had in the morning (due to the match against Vouliagmeni on Tuesday)…”was the first remark of Nikos Deligiannis.

On the experience of him and Giorgos Afroudakis in the big matches and whether he played a key role in the final: “Evaluating it already, the experience we had from the finals also helps. George when he speaks, and he rarely does, knowing the high level, he does it with great ease and will hardly fall into a puddle, which may be a factor due to his inexperience. I am facing situations that we have experienced repeatedly.”

On whether just participating in the final was considered a success: “The club is such that it considered participation in the final a success. We lost the lead due to bad handling at the end. I think the key point was that we were down at the end of the first final and while we had won. I congratulated my players, told them that no team can beat us by two goals or if they do they will have to try really hard.

When I started talking to them in Serafio after the end of the match, because the dressing rooms are side by side and there is a gap in the ceiling and you can hear the opponent, the Spaniards were celebrating and could be heard. He told them look at a team celebrating because they think the score suits them. No great team celebrates when they lose. That was the first point, the second was the night before the final when the Terrace agents came and we had dinner. I told my colleagues that it is very important that the opponent is not Barcelona, ​​because we could never go past them. We will win the Cup, there is no way, I told them.”

Regarding the tactics followed by Apollon in the second final in Barcelona: “More or less we did the same as Serafio, but we were more read in their own defense. We had a lot of patience, we won turnovers, we scored a lot of goals in the last 5 seconds of the attack. Terasa couldn’t play 20 second defense, she couldn’t stand it. Vickovic had tremendous clarity in the game, and he is not the most patient guy. We changed our defense in the third eight minutes and took the lead.

Galanopoulos could have saved 2-3 goals, to keep the passive lower. We estimated that we would score 9-10 goals, but we would definitely score at least 12.”