Smiling for her qualification of Olympiakos to the semi-finals of the Conference League and determined to fight with his players for his team to reach the end he presented himself Jose Luis Mendilibar.
“It is very difficult to express our feelings. We conceded an early goal, we suffered, but we held on. Our reward for enduring was a penalty shootout. Now we have to rest and focus on the next match“, said the Basque technician.
“We chased, we tried hard… We knew that after the goal in the 11th minute it wouldn’t be easy. We had several clear cut chances, including the post in extra time. Fortunately we won on penalties. The continuation is very difficult, we have two games against Aston Villa, but we have to focus first on Sunday’s match against PAOK“, he added.
For the two matches remaining until the final of the competition, he emphasized: “Since we have come this far, we want to go to the final. With all due respect to Aston Villa, who are a very good team. We will give everything, with all our strength and I hope we will succeed».
Asked about the entry of Ibora in the second half, he answered: “I wanted us to push and defend a little higher. Even though we took out a striker and put in a midfielder, we didn’t want to back down, but to push higher».
As for whether he feels justified in appointing Tzolakis as the main player, he said:It is not usual to change the goalkeeper, but I have done it in my other teams. These are decisions you can make when a player is training very well. Tzolakis does and I hope he continues to offer us, just like Paschalakis».
Source: Sport Fm
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