Carvalhal: “We will not cross the footballers who missed the penalties – Let’s play smart against Aris”

Statements ahead of Olympiakos’ match with Aris were made by Carlos Carvalhal!

The coach of the “red and whites” commented on the good performance of his team in the rematch of the Greek Cup Betsson against Panathinaikos, he emphasized that he is not going to… cross the two footballers who missed the penalty shootout, while he described the game as very difficult with Aris (21/1, 20:30), stressing that his players must play smart.

In detail what the coach of Olympiakos said:



On what the situation is after the ban and where he stood in discussions with the players: “From our last game against Panathinaikos, we cannot say that anything was to blame for our competitive attitude and behavior. We came out of the game full of energy, we gave it our all, we performed well and I don’t think there was anything to blame for our elimination performance. Many times luck is also to blame and when we reached this point, it is not due to anything to do with racing. To put behind us what happened, to concentrate on our next goal, starting with the championship”.

For Carvalios and Kamaras, who have stood out with their performance, but were the “fatal” ones in the penalties: “It is not difficult to manage this situation. Ronaldo has missed penalties, Messi has missed penalties, all footballers have missed penalties. This can happen, we will not cross two footballers because at that moment they failed to score. In training they scored, unfortunately they didn’t succeed in the match, but anyone who has never made a mistake should throw the stone at these players. Let’s continue our training, let’s go further”.

For the Mars game: “It will be a difficult game for us, at the home of Aris, who have lost to PAOK, AEK and Panathinaikos. It will not be an easy match for us either. We should choose footballers, who will be less charged, in the last match they made a great effort for 120 minutes. Let’s get a team that will have energy. We don’t think things will be easy, let’s play smart to get the result”.

For transfers: “At the moment we have to deal with players who are in our team, we cannot comment on players who are not here, we know that the January transfer market is difficult, we are trying to strengthen our team. The comment will be made when we have arrivals”.

On whether he is worried about injuries ahead of Mars: “The conditions are similar for us and Ares, the fatigue that our opponent will feel is similar. We have to choose footballers, because there are players who come back quickly and others who need time. Let’s select 11 players who are considered fresher”.

For his message to the world of Olympiakos: “Everyone understands that we are in a transition period, we have been here for a while, with the intention of improving the team, making it more competitive and with the intention of changing some things. So our players follow us, we have shown the intention to win the games. We played competitive games with Panathinaikos, the team has shown that it is on the rise, we also lacked luck. In general the team shows that they are trying, when someone works the result will come. The result cannot come in one day, but we have come here to work, we believe a lot in the future, in our team, we are optimistic that things will improve”.