Lucescu: “We talked to the players about Wednesday’s shock, we came back and showed that we don’t give up”

Statements at the press conference after PAOK’s great victory in the derby against AEK were made by Rasvan Lucescutalking about the character shown by his football players, overcoming the great difficulties and the physical and mental fatigue they faced with the consecutive games in Greece and Europe, describing them as fighters and stressing that his team will claim the title until the end!

In detail what the PAOK coach said at the press conference:



On whether PAOK has no energy and on the fact that they denied everyone in the derby with AEK: “I always tell you, but you don’t want to listen to me. I have said it many times that in this season, it is reasonable to have ups and downs, we have played too many matches with intensity. Sometimes at the maximum, sometimes not. We are a team without a lot of experience in situations like this with a series of intense games, with games, with trips in a row. It’s not easy at all, we reached the quarter-finals in Europe and played strong teams like Brugge and Dinamo Zagreb. We consumed a lot of mental energy in these matches and also in the matches for the playoffs.

There will be times when you won’t win, when you won’t be good in one match or even in the second. In football it is a moment, a detail that changes everything. Because in all games, it has fights, it has runs, it has many things. The rotation helped us a lot during the period when we had injuries and we played well. Under no circumstances can one talk about fitness, because every match always ends with good runs. We had the issue with the virus before the match with AEK, which took a significant part of our energy. We initially had 1-2 players with the virus, it ended up being 10 players affected by the virus. Today, the situation was difficult after two games in a row, we discussed it with the players about Wednesday’s shock. We came back and showed that we don’t give up”.

On the fatigue of several teams in Europe in general: “I do not know. We have to adapt to all this. We have had a fantastic season, which has everything. With trips, with a few hours of sleep, with flights and with days when we didn’t train because of the matches we had in between. A day before the match you cannot put any intensity in the training and you are forced to do a different kind of training.

I don’t want to talk about the title, I want to talk about the situation. We played at the home of all three teams in Athens, which have difficult venues that can influence the referee to make mistakes. The championship is judged by details, they can go with you and you can take advantage of them, they can also go to the opponent and he becomes the winner. It’s a completely different feeling to play in Tuba, to be energized by the crowd. It’s not just a game when we play at home”.

About Constantelia, Sastre and their image in the match: “It is Delia’s best game today against AEK. Action, tactical discipline and execution. But it must continue like this, at the same pace. For Sastre, he has quality and can help the whole team. His problem is that sometimes he can’t handle his stress and pressure especially in big games. When he comes in focused, like today, he is a player who helps. I’m happy for him, for the goal he scored and his image on the pitch”.