Mendiliber: “We weren’t good, only wins until the end – We can’t wait for the final to go to Europe”

Olympiacos experienced defeat in Thessaloniki by PAOK with a score of 2-0 and the team’s coach, Jose Luis Mendiliberafter the end of the match he emphasized that the “red and white” did not show the good image of their last matches.

The Basque technician’s press conference in detail:

Was Olympiacos “empty” from the big qualification in Europe or was PAOK so well read regularly?

It is true that PAOK played a good game and beat us fairly. We, on the other hand, did not show anything of what we have shown in our last matches. We had the ball just to have it, we couldn’t take advantage of it and so the game was controlled by the opposition.

It looked like you were looking for a quick goal and Olympiacos were dangerous, was the fact that they didn’t get that crucial?

Our intention was what it always is, we wanted to get into the game and get control, that’s our game and we like to be in control. We wanted to create chances, we tried, but that only lasted for 12 minutes. Then the opponent was better than us and took control of the match and from then on we had no ability to achieve anything.

In the time left to finish the championship, Olympiacos can go second, but they can also find themselves outside of Europe, how do you manage this?

Of course, what we want is to win the two remaining matches for the championship, as our intention was to beat PAOK as well, but we did not succeed. The match didn’t work out for us at all. We have to win the games to ensure our exit to Europe through the league, we can’t wait to see what happens in the final. It is a final, which we will give and if it does not go well, we are in danger of being left out of Europe and for that we will have to win one of the first three places. If we also win the final it will be a really great opportunity to play in Europe in different conditions, but our aim is to be in the top three, we have to win the matches in front of us.

Do you think as a result you should have made more changes to your starting line-up compared to the match against Aston Villa?

I don’t know if it would be better, we made five changes compared to Thursday’s game. And now that the game is over we saw that those who played on Thursday weren’t good either, but neither were those who hadn’t played. When the team is not good really nothing can go well, it is not due to persons. Maybe I didn’t manage to motivate the players as well as I should after Thursday’s success, maybe we didn’t enter the game mentally and the coach has the biggest responsibility for that, maybe because the players didn’t manage to put in the minds of the players what exactly what they had to do. I don’t know if it’s because of the faces, in general the team was not good.

Is the level of Greek football such that it allows us to have other European finals?

When you do this once you get a different air and approach and that helps. You also make your opponents respect you more. Therefore, a team that succeeds once is easier to do a second time. In general, when you are in Europe many times and have a good run, the opponents will respect you more. Real Madrid have done this many times and whether they win the title or not when they are in the final of Europe they are always seen as favorites because they know how to get there and the further a team goes in Europe the more respected and gets closer to the goal.

You have now been at Olympiakos for three months, what is your opinion of the Greek league.

In the Greek league there are four teams that stand out. Ares, who is the fifth group, could be close to the rest, but it looks like he doesn’t want to, like he doesn’t believe it. The other groups are quite far away. But this happens in many leagues, as it is in the Premier League where three teams have escaped and the others are far away. This is common in all leagues. But it is good for Greek football that we are close to putting more teams in Europe and for the Greek teams to show what they really deserve. The fact that Olympiacos is in the final of the Conference League and PAOK was up to the “8” is proof that our league has risen compared to other leagues in Europe.