Vitoria: “Today we had to be … men, we don’t give up the championship”

Panathinaikos reacted after his shocking defeat by Lamia, dominating Panetolikos 2-0 at OAKA.

During a press conference after the end of the match, the “Greens” coach, Rui Vitoria, welcomed that his team managed to take the three -point against a difficult opponent, stood in his personality that his teammates had to show.

In detail what the Panathinaikos coach said:



Whether it was a victory-oxygen for his team and for those he liked: “Oxygen in the sense that the team needed this victory a lot, after an outcome and an image that was not good in Lamia at all. We knew that today we had the opportunity to get 3 points at our headquarters. We did it against a difficulty opponent who had a lot of mind in defense. It was a game that could become much more difficult and dangerous, and we, especially with the first half, made it easier to manage.

The two elements I liked most are the dedication of the players, who entered the pitch to do their best and increase their aggression, and the fact that we had a specific plan and the players did it in full. They tried to attack in various ways, holding the organization. We have in some cases lacked the concentration that could give oxygen to the opponent, but it is reasonable after the last appearance. I didn’t expect a huge match, we did well enough and we were looking forward. “.

For the climate in the team after the defeat by Lamia and the changes it made: “What I said to players is that today we didn’t need their quality so much today, but we had to be really men. In the sense that the last match has hurt our selfishness. More than showing that we are a good team, we had to show a reaction and we believe it. On the other hand, for me it was very positive that last week was “clean”, we had no match games, so we had 2 workouts to work specific things. Until now, continuous games have made training more rehabilitation, this week we were able to work regularly. Certainly I am very pleased with the reaction I saw, we show that we have overcome the bad look and defeat with Lamia. We worked some things and in view of our difficult European struggle.

As for the selection of players, various factors influenced my final decision. Carroll thought he has features that fit in today’s game is also the issue of burden on many consecutive Thursday games. We thought that some players were quite burdensome, such as Ioannides. We thought we had to give Arao time to return. It is a management we need to do this week to see what the best choices are. We may want to constantly put the best 11, but this is difficult in continuous games. We made these options and in the face of the next race ».

For Sfinterski: “As for its performance, it was very good. He is a footballer with a strong instinct to be in the right place in the area. As for the preparation of our attacks, it has a good timing in the movements in the space and its characteristics help us to open such defenses.

For the second part of the question, I haven’t decided. It is definitely an option. We need to look at the restoration and who will be in the best condition. We have a very strong team against us, but we will do everything we can to qualify. We do not give up the championship, we have a long way to go and we will make an effort to go as high as possible. “.

For Panetoliko: “Panetolikos is a team with clear orientation and identity, based mainly on the team element and not on each player’s individual quality. It is one of the teams that have won too many points away and has a defense that concedes very difficult goals. It makes sense after the bad look we made in our last match to come here and believe that they can achieve something. We had to have the role of the protagonist, but to manage defensive transfers well and not allow them counterattack. So our plan was to have good and fast circulation, to change the side to tire the opponent, especially the huffs, so that we could find some gaps. This needed patience, I think we did well enough and we also checked the dangerous players that the opponent has mainly on the offensive line and those who came off the bench. “.

For the blank spaces presented by his team in the start of the second half: “As for the game, I didn’t expect to make a perfect game, especially after the bad result we came from. We had to work hard to build confidence again and in the first half the team showed this very much. I say this because I want to highlight the fact that we did too many things well on the pitch. In the second half, Panetolikos actually found a few spaces, perhaps the change of formation to 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 helped. We were a little late to adapt to this track, but when we found it we reached the 2nd goal, we could score 3rd to be even more calm. So worried I didn’t feel at some point. Certainly my attention is always at 100% to see what is happening and think about how I will intervene to help the team more. I tried to do this when I saw Panetolikos has taken steps and we scored the second goal. “.