THE Panathinaikos opposes on Thursday night with the Chelsea at OAKA and the “clover” coach, Diego Alonso, expressed his confidence in his team’s ability to achieve a great result.
What he said in detail:
For Panathinaikos’ home defense against Chelsea:
“Defense is very important. In every game. A good defense is what gives you the possibility of having a good attack as well.”
About the games with Ajax and Lance and whether there are similarities with the Londoners:
“What these games have in common is the environment. Soccer they are different groups. In the game I think Chelsea are superior to Ajax and Lance. This doesn’t change our opinion about how we’re going to play the match. We know it’s a difficult game, but we have the potential to create opportunities. We know we have to be good both defensively and offensively.”
On playing against Chelsea:
“We hope to put our terms in the game, but we are realistic about who we are going to face. We prepare the team to face the different situations of a match. We had few opportunities to do that in European games. If we had the opportunity to do this more frequently, we would certainly have developed our counterattacks more. Tomorrow there will be phases where we will be asked to defend more and vice versa. What we want is to have control of the game.”
On the improvements he would like to see against Chelsea tomorrow:
“I want to see competitiveness. And team spirit. From now on, whatever he wants to decide.”
On Chelsea conceding easy goals, new players and criticism of his team:
“Chelsea is a team we have a lot of respect for. We are not afraid, we respect him. When we play against smaller teams, we respect them. I learned to respect everyone. This means respect for the sport. Tomorrow we can win the race. I don’t know what percentage we have, but even 1% I will run and chase it. This is team spirit. This is what I want, to fight our battle. Like we did with Ajax and Lance. The spirit must be the same. Regarding the comments, I must say that throughout my career, we have all always known how to deal with pressure. Trust my players.”
To Baldock:
“We are in a lot of pain and very sad. We have felt this pain inside us for fifteen days. Very difficult days. I don’t think it’s right to talk about the way we deal with this great pain. What we can do for George is respect. And the second we dedicated the entire season, the entire period.”