Almeida: “We took a risk with the changes and got the victory – With Athanasiadis we won the titles last year”

Satisfied with the behavior of his players which led to the victory over him Olympiakou appeared Matias Almeida.

Her Argentinian technician AEK hat off to George Athanasiadissaying that everyone forgets that last year’s double came with him in the goal, while he argued that the players who entered as a change had a catalytic presence to lead the yellow and black to victory.

“First of all good evening. The first brief analysis I can make is that it was a great derby that was played cleanly. Thus he turned the game into a draw. I’m obviously happy for the win, but I work in Greece. So I can’t help but look objectively. These matches raise the level of Greek football. It was a tough, tough game that was played very well. We insisted on getting the win in today’s game. The opposition have very good players, their style of play has changed and they play a faster and more direct game. I believe we were able to interpret it and protect ourselves. Then it seemed that we wanted to get the win with the changes. We wanted the win and the three points. And until the final whistle we succeeded.”

For Athanasiadis who was named MVP?

“I have already spoken with him. We were constantly talking. Last year with his presence we won titles. I believe that the way the week we are going is giving us all a way to think. Only one is righteous. And there it is… high up. Everyone else makes mistakes. We have good times and bad times. We work as a team. Yes there are faults, but also advantages. It makes me very happy the way he played tonight and things are coming naturally. Yesterday in training we were working on the static phases and Stankovic was injured. We work with all players the same. And it is up to the intelligence of each player how he will train. Athanasiadis looked ready to play and from yesterday until today he had an ideal reaction”.

For the many phases that AEK conceded and whether these phases were a product of Olympiakos’ different game or AEK’s mistakes?

“When there are some phases for him to score a lot of times it’s because the team has created it or mistakes from the other team. It is very difficult in a match not to have mistakes. These players have chosen to be goalkeepers and should be fit to play whenever they have to.”

How does he feel now that he has all the players at his disposal and a strong bench?

“Today I am very happy. I’ll still be happy for another… 40 minutes. Since I generally sleep a few hours after the matches, I will start watching the next game. It was an important match. First of all because it was a derby. Because of the conditions, but also because PAOK had won. There were many and we gave many solutions. The majority of players have returned. Are well. There are many of us and everyone should defend the positions they are called to play.

Both last year and this year, personally, I’ve tried to be fair with my picks and think about the team and not just the names. If you look at today’s XI, it was different from other XIs. It’s about strategy. Tonight things went well, if it hadn’t gone well the questions would have been different. All players are important. We do training where all the players can show things. We gave a friendly to give time to children who did not have much time to participate. With me, everyone knows they can take chances and be ready.”

For the many changes he made in the game to change AEK’s playing style, even if it is… grand meter?

“It’s a lot of things that you saw in the game. In the first minutes we did not follow the right path, playing with big balls and knowing that the opponent would try to reduce the space. The starting 11 was to fight a physical battle with Olympiakos. His center was strong and they would attack from the flanks. We managed to block him, but not play the ball. In the second half we corrected it a bit. The yellows of Szymanski and Rota came and playing a derby I didn’t want the team to play with 10.

I had not thought before the match that Pineda would play full back. When we put Ponce with Garcia, we started to lose the center again. That’s where I made the decision to make the change and put Mandalo in the position I had earlier and have Ljubisic play with Jonsson. It was kind of a strategy we had. Let’s tire the opponent and through the changes let AEK get oxygen and speed. We did this last year. Not this year. And now I was given the chance to take risks. We took the risk and got the result we wanted. If we didn’t win it would be different and maybe we would say that we went on the attack and left spaces behind. But I don’t do anything if I don’t do it before training.”