Fortounis: “Let’s regroup – the derby with Panathinaikos is a final”

Redraft message from Kostas Fortunis in Olympiakos ahead of the derby between Piraeus and Panathinaikos, on Sunday (10/3, 20:30) as part of the 1st round of the Stoiximan Super League playoffs.

The captain of Piraeus made statements after his team’s heavy defeat by Maccabi Tel Aviv and, among other things, he characterized the impending match of the two “eternals” as final.

In detail, Kostas Fortounis spoke to Cosmote TV about:

-the defeat by Maccabi Tel Aviv: “It was a difficult night for us. We didn’t expect this. We saw that the opponent was a very good and hardworking team. We made some mistakes which we need to improve starting from the next match. We forget this game. We have a derby ahead of us. We know what we have to do, we know how important it is and we all have to go the extra mile to win. Certainly the team has shown a very good face so far. We’ve had a lot of consecutive games with only wins, but that’s football. We have to see what went wrong against Maccabi, regroup and move on because we have a lot of games ahead of us and our aim is to win them all».

-whether Sunday’s derby with Panathinaikos is “final”: “Yes, I agree, because it is an Olympiacos-Panathinaikos derby and if we win we will leave them behind. It is a very important game and we have to see it as a final and start the playoffs with a win in order to have similar continuity along the way. These matches are judged on who wants it more and duels. Many times we see that good games are not played and in the end the one who wants it the most wins. We have to be focused for the whole 90 minutes and get the win».