Olympiakos: Group therapy at Rentis – What Martinez, Fortounis and other players discussed

An attempt to regroup and rally was made on Monday at his training center Olympiakou in Rentis, after the heaviest home defeat by PAOK with a score of 4-2.

The “red and white” football players had an open discussion with their coach Diego Martinez with the aim of picking up their pieces in view of the difficult continuation starting with Thursday’s match against West Ham in London.

First, Diego Martinez took the floor, who argued: “It was a heavy defeat that should be a lesson for us going forward. It was a bad night for all of us, but we have to put it behind us. We started the game well. We had chances to score and take the lead, but then we lost our minds. Like we stopped playing. We did it all wrong. We must remember that a game lasts 90 minutes. If we are not serious, focused and determined throughout the race, we will have problems. It was a hard lesson, but we have to learn from our mistakes.

I trust the team and you, we have built a good team and you are all excellent players. These bad times happen in football. But they don’t have to destroy you. We have to get a reaction. To show that it was a bad time. We are Olympiacos and we must constantly prove what a team we are. We have the match against West Ham ahead of us and we have to show that we have left the game with PAOK behind. It is the most difficult game to date against the English team and we have to do our duty”.

The baton was taken by the captain Kostas Fortounis: “We all understand that this result is harsh. We are not a team to lose like this. But there is no point in bowing our heads. We were hurt and irritated. Now we have to react. That’s what great teams do. Let’s take the next games together as a team.”

This was followed by Rodney who said: “I felt that we are not the same team as the last three games. I feel bad, because neither I played well nor all of us as a team. But the most important thing is to accept that you didn’t play well, understand how and why we lost and move on. We lost a match. It wasn’t meant to be, but it happened. This does not mean that we should lose our minds and faith in ourselves. We are a big team, with good players and I am sure that we will react”.



Youssef El Arabi, one of the captains of Olympiakos, also spoke: “These things happen in life and in football all the time. It’s good to be upset and to do our self-criticism all of us. But we have other games ahead of us. We are here to win many battles. The fact that we lost one is not a disaster. We will fight and win the next ones. ¨

Forget what happened. Don’t let it make you think negatively. You saw how the people supported us at the end. The fans believe in us, they are with us, so we should do what we are here for. Calm down, do your own self-criticism and let’s move on. We have a long way to go”

Finally, the stimulation of psychology was undertaken by the experienced Vithente Ibora who reported: “Since the beginning of the year, a lot has happened and we have been through a lot. We are a good team, we have done a lot of good things, ok we didn’t play well in the match against PAOK, but that shouldn’t make us lose our way. We have to work even harder in training.

Because with work you correct mistakes. When we lose we all lose together and when we win we also all win together. We have a lot of games ahead of us. Let’s come back strong and give everything to reach the top again”.