Loucescu: “It’s not a coincidence that last year’s players appeared – This happened in the penalty shootout with Tsalov and Koulierakis”

THE PAOK defeated Shamrock Rovers 4-0with Razvan Lucescu to emphasize in the press conference after the match that the appearance of last year’s eleven was not accidental, while explaining what happened in his phase penalty with Tsalof and Koulierakis.

What he said in detail:

For the qualification lead and management between Greece and Europe: “If you don’t show respect you get punished. How can I say that we qualified? We have to be serious in the second match as well. We have to be focused in the second match as well and of course go with the same mentality throughout the season.

I know that we have a match on Sunday against Panaitolikos and we have to think about that. This match I will start thinking, I will study the opponent and we will make the appropriate decisions. We also want to go against Shamrock on Thursday with absolute determination and with absolute seriousness because we are interested in qualification”.

About the fact that PAOK started the match without the presence of a player who came in the summer and how with this line-up they played a perfect game: “It’s no accident. It’s a group of players who played together last year, they know each other. I know we have to take a risk and put our young players in. And last year we did this until February and then we lost two or three of them.

But we had energy in our games and this year I want the same. We need all players to come close to our wishes because we will have many games in Greece and Europe. It’s just that last year’s group was more mentally prepared and that’s true.”

On which element of the team he liked best: “I want to single out Brandon. What he lacked was simply the goal. But in everything else he was perfect. How he ran, how he marked, how he pressed, how he moved correctly in space. He ran non-stop, brought quality to our game, took advantage of spaces.

Yes, I picked out Brandon’s style. Yes they were all good, what can I say about the other guys, Constantelia, Zivkovic, Otto who helped with the first part of the development, the defensive midfielders who put in work, Tyson, all the guys but yeah Brandon for me stood out . But I want to say that the players who entered also helped. All four changes helped. Kamara provided solutions, Despodov took the cross into the goal and won the penalty, Murg who for me against Panserraikos was the best”.

For the penalty shootout and what exactly was the decision made: “I had given the permission to Koulierakis but I realized that Tsalof wanted to execute it and I decided that it should be done immediately. In the previous match I did not allow him to execute it and Schwab executed it (s.s. in the match against Panserraikos). It was my responsibility to allow Koulierakis to ask to do it, but from the moment he asked to do it, it had to be done.

Chalov told me after the match that it was a mistake that he missed but what I want to discuss with him is that he should not fall into the trap of going crazy because he has to score. He had phases, the third goal starts from his own pressure, in the fourth goal he creates it. The most important thing is the team.”