Nikolaidis: “Olympiacos won fairly – I wouldn’t give the penalty but…”

Olympiakos’ victory over PAOK in the derby in Karaiskaki was rightly characterized by Demis Nikolaidis, while commenting on the refereeing in the match…

“Olympiacos won fairly, according to the performance I saw. The good thing for Olympiakos is that it produced new protagonists. The coach changed many players. Maybe his friends were… anxious to see the line-up. From Olympiakos I singled out two who were not playing. Ibora who had the most actions and passes and Richards. I saw him and I say how come no one else is playing and competing? So many changes might have been risky. He did what he thought was right. It worked out for him, but it could not work out for him. It doesn’t mean he would be wrong. PAOK made few changes. Zivkovic was very good, Koulierakis was also involved in the game”he said while commenting on the arbitration decisions…

“Arbitration why? Because PAOK is complaining? I’ve said before that I don’t give penalties. If you asked me, it’s strict, I wouldn’t give it. But you cannot say why he gave it. There is contact and then… search and find. I don’t give these away easily. If I were a referee I wouldn’t give such, others do, if you ask me about this phase. What should VAR do in the penalty? Is there a contact he will call him and what will he say? In the second goal I did not sit down to see in detail whether he found him or not. If he considers it to be a foul, VAR could reverse the phase and cancel the goal. So they agreed“, he said and added:

“Sometimes they might be doing it to support each other, sometimes they might be right or that’s the way they blow the whistle. For arbitration I will only have to say things if it is something that will make a big impression on me. The big mistakes with VAR do not exist and if there is any mistake it will be corrected. I say again, in order to give a penalty, the other person must… die.”