Jacob Nistrup appeared optimistic—bordering on certainty—that Panathinaikos would accomplish its mission during the press conference ahead of the rematch against Hradec Kralove. The Danish coach emphasized the need for his team not to take a passive role in the match, as happened in the final minutes of the first game. Specifically, he spoke about: – the
importance of the match: “Of course it’s an important match, just like the other five were. There’s always a loser and a winner. Now we’re in the final match. The pressure is the same as it was in the second game against Paks and in Sofia. We’re one game away from our goal. We’ll do our best to make it happen. We were disappointed too; we analyzed it and evaluated our performance. Now we’re ready, and I believe we’ll pull it off.”
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
-On the limited options in defense: “The players who will start tomorrow will be good enough to win the match. Of course, I’d prefer it if Kalabria or Tsapras, etc., were fit, but I’m prepared for this. When I took over, I knew everyone was ready to build a new team, which means situations like this could arise. So it’s no surprise to me. If you do the math, we’re a bit short-handed in that area for tomorrow, so we want to get lucky and avoid any problems.”
-On facing Hradec in tomorrow’s match: “Actually, I’ve been focusing on our own game, because the most important thing is to improve on what we didn’t do well. I have great respect for our opponent. We watched their two home games against Tromsø and Beşiktaş, where they started off aggressively. We also watched some matches from the Czech Republic, where they played against the “big teams” on their home turf. But I believe that if we play up to our potential—not just for 70 minutes, but for the entire match—we can pull it off, and if we do that, then we’ll win.”
-On the times the team sits back: “It has nothing to do with transfers. We’ve already signed good players. We have some issues; if they didn’t exist, we might be doing better. In both of our last two matches, we were a… hair’s breadth away from keeping a clean sheet, having conceded very few shots on goal. The highest xGoals against us always come in the final minutes. I don’t believe in luck. It might play a role. But the biggest mistake we made was our own, and that was becoming too passive. It’s okay to make mistakes, but not to keep making the same ones over and over. My job is to make sure we do the things we want to do—and do them right. If we’d scored a third goal, it would have been over. The opponent is good on the counterattack. We need to focus on the things we do well to get the win we all want. We have to avoid mistakes.”
De Vrij spoke on behalf of the players: “There was a lot of disappointment after the first game. We felt we did well for most of the match, but in the end, we ended up with a draw. At first, you feel disappointed after a result like that, but then you focus on the rematch,” the Dutch defender emphasized.
“We analyzed the mistakes we made. We have a lot of work to do; we want to get the win tomorrow. There’s pressure in every game; I feel like that’s important. It’s a great opportunity for me, and qualifying is an important goal for the club,” he added.
As for what advice he’ll give his teammates as the most experienced player and captain? “We need to act responsibly and treat the game like a final, because we have to get the result and advance to the League Phase.”
*photo source: KYPE
