Coach Helsinki: “Lucescu has done an excellent job with his players at PAOK”

Statements at the press conference ahead of tomorrow’s (14/12, 19:45) match of PAOK with the Helsinki in Toumba for the final of his 7th group Conference Leaguethe coach of the Finnish team did, Tony Korkeakounaswho praised Lucescu’s work on “The Bicep of the North”.

What the Helsinki coach said in detail:



On how he thinks about the match: “It’s a stress-free game for both teams. In every match we give 100% and we always have a plan for every game, whoever the opponent is. PAOK has already qualified for the round of 16 but there is no difference, we always give our best and after the game between us we have regained confidence, since we had good samples. Even though we lost the first match the players coped well. It doesn’t matter who we play, but our fans always expect something more”.

For PAOK: “Lucescu has done a great job with his group of players”.

For the conditions: “The temperature when we left Finland was -10, but football is nice when you play in nice, sunny conditions like those in Greece. In fact, in a recent match against Aberdeen we played in snow conditions. We had the opportunity to come here for several days in order to acclimatize to the conditions. During our stay we had the opportunity to bond as a team since it is our last game”.

On what it’s like for a coach to prepare his team with the cold winter break in the back of his mind: “Good question. Coaches in Scandinavia, in addition to other qualifications, have to be very smart in order to prepare their footballers. This is very difficult as you have to keep the fighting spirit in the players. There are pros and cons regarding the winter break but in Scandinavia we are used to such situations but on the other hand it is a constructive period so that we can develop our work”.

The statements of the football player of Helsinki, Lukas Lingman:



“We are ready, we didn’t do anything special regarding the European game in Toumba. I hope the stadium is full since we have all seen the atmosphere that is created in the PAOK stadium and we want to enjoy it. Some of my teammates have even seen videos. Obviously, PAOK is a huge team, they had very good results and the truth is that we expected these results”.