Alonso: ‘To improve our mistakes ahead of the second leg – The club worked very hard for Tete to come’

The two factors that changed the image and the score of the match, as well as the good image of his team for 70 minutes, was the Diego Alonso after the victory of Panathinaikos over Botev with a score of 2-1.

The Uruguayan coach analyzed what happened in the match, stressing that Botev’s better tempo and the anxiety that existed in the “greens” after the 2-1, leave open the case of qualification in view of the rematch, while he added that the mistakes.

Among others, Diego Alonso also spoke for the acquisition of Tetehighlighting the work that the people of the team did in order to dress the Brazilian in “green”.

In detail what he said:

We saw Panathinaikos dominate for 60 minutes, have chances for more goals. After the reduction of the score, the picture was not as good, as a result of which the match ended with 2-1 and there was an anxiety about the rematch. What was it that changed?

“First of all, the team played very good football for 70 minutes. After the 70th minute there were two factors that changed things. The first is Botev’s goal which gave her confidence. The second is that the opponent was playing his 4th official game, so he had a better pace. On the one hand the goal, on the other hand the lack of rhythm caused the change. The most important thing in a match is the goal. After they achieved that, that put them back in the game.”

The mistake from which Botev scored was from Vilena, who was booed at his substitution. You applauded him. I would like a comment on this. And a second: in the regular part we saw Botev dangerous on the counter-attacks and many times it looked like there was no midfield. Does this style favor Panathinaikos or is it something the team should be aware of, going at a slower pace?



“As far as Vilena is concerned, all players can make mistakes. The important thing is that the player can continue and that shows courage. For that I applauded him. In the second half we suffered from the opponent’s counterattacks. We got stressed at some point. When one team is stressed, the other gains an advantage over it.”

On whether a great opportunity was missed today:

“It depends which way you look at it. I think we had a great chance today for a bigger score, but you can’t cry or be sad because what’s done is done. Now we have a win in our favor and we have to defend it in the next match and work to improve the things we did badly.”

Does today’s 2-1 give you extra motivation for the return leg?

“To win you have to play well, but you can even if you play badly. But when someone plays well, he has more chances. I think today we played a good game, we had 20 minutes where we didn’t play as we would have liked. But it is a good start to start well and continue with wins. The most important thing is that during the season we can improve and go better as a team. Results are important because they give us confidence. Today we saw this, because the team was winning 2-0 and playing with great confidence, while with 2-1 they lost it. We have to keep that confidence and continue with personality.”

On the transfer of Tete and what he expects to give him on the creative side:

“I’m not used to talking about each of the players individually. But this transfer really gives us a lot of appetite. The club worked very hard to bring the player here. We will continue to do it so that we bring in important players who can help us.”