Papadopoulos: “We will give everything and try to claim qualification”

THE National Hope will deal with them Faroe Islands on Thursday (16/11, 16:00) at “Theodoros Kolokotronis”.

The technician Nikos Papadopoulos ahead of the match and addressed several issues.

His statements in detail:

For the Faroe Islands game: We will give everything and try to claim qualification. I will focus on the first game with the Faroe Islands. Although most people think that they are a weak team, the Faroes are a very difficult team to score against because they play a very good defense.

We have a few days to prepare but I think the game we played here against Croatia showing real elements of a good team, we want to keep those so we can win the first game to go to the next one.

Our players are ready and in good condition apart from one or two small problems like that of Venning who didn’t come to help us but the whole is there so that we can win the first game against the Faroe Islands to go up in the standings to go with a better mentality in the next game against a difficult opponent like Portugal.

About the atmosphere at Theodoros Kolokotronis and his own call to the people: We felt very good the last time we played here with the people helping us. Football players need the support of the crowd and you can understand how important it is to play in a full stadium with the crowd with you. We invite the public to come to the stadium to support these young children who are the future of Greek football.

For the team goal: The first goal we have set is to claim qualification. We have two very strong teams in our group, Portugal and Croatia. We have played both of them and we showed our potential against Croatia which we could win and from details came the draw. We set the bar high, the pressure is on the footballers to pass the mentality of belief in their abilities and in the team so that we can claim the qualification. We know it is difficult but we believe in it and we try to transfer this belief to our footballers.

On whether Portugal are not an invincible team after all: After all, Portugal is not an invincible team. We faced them away from home and at the start of the second half we showed good elements, We scored a goal which was disallowed, we pressed and created some good moments. In the second game coming up we have to find the way, the tactics and the strategy on how to beat this good team and I believe we will find the way as long as we win the very important first game for us against the Faroe Islands.



For the Greek footballer: All this time that I have been in the Federation, I have watched many football players from a very young age, especially from K15 to K19. There really is a lot of talent in Greece and in the coming years many of them will excel in Greek football as long as their coaches show them confidence. The foreign footballers are good, but they need to show confidence in these children who have talent by letting them play. A problem we face in the Elpida National team is children we have on calls with us and they don’t compete as much as they should in their teams. There are children who show their talent by playing and having a role such as Christos Tzolis who is with us this time, Giorgos Koutsias and the children of Asteras Tripoli who also compete a lot. In order to have a better Greek football, we need more Greek football players whom we will actually trust.