Henning Berg continues to look at the big picture following Omonia’s European commitments, while also focusing on the challenging road ahead and the domestic competitions.
The Norwegian coach highlighted the positive aspects and the periods of high performance shown by the “Greens,” emphasizing that the experiences from the Europa League represent an essential and valuable stage of development for the entire club.
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At the same time, the “Clover” coach immediately turned his attention to the upcoming away match against Anorthosis (November 8 – 4:00 p.m.), highlighting the unique challenges of the match and the opponent’s high level of motivation.
In a message to the team’s fans, he expressed his satisfaction with the continuous improvement of his players and made it clear that the sole objective remains keeping Omonia at the top.
Here’s what Henning Berg said: “In the first half, we showed what our top level can be, with a very impressive performance. In the second half, we also played well, but we conceded a goal off a corner kick after 15 minutes and didn’t defend as we should have. That can happen, but we definitely need to learn from it. Until they scored their second goal between the 70th and 73rd minutes, I thought it was still a balanced and good game. We were close, competitive, and playing much like we did in the first half—perhaps without creating huge chances, but we were in the game.
Then they scored two quick goals when we weren’t as sharp as we could be; they were first to the rebounds, we didn’t have control of the offside line, and they scored. When you make those kinds of small mistakes, you get punished more often when you’re playing in the Europa League. We’re showing that we’re maturing in Europe. Expectations from here on out aren’t the same; we’re looking to improve. This is an incredible learning experience for everyone at the club. It’s normal—it will take time to make progress, improve, and get better year after year.
You see Norwegian teams like Bodø/Glimt that started their European campaign by losing a lot of games and suddenly find themselves playing in the Champions League and doing well in the Europa League, too. It takes time to improve and develop the team, the roster, the coaching staff—everyone—so that we can reach the next level. In terms of our play, what we did at times during this match was at a high level, just like when we beat Celta at home, and also against Benfica, who were very good, but they scored, and we were punished again because we weren’t 100% focused on our game. It’s hard to be 100% for 95 minutes, but we’re trying and working on it.
As for the transition to the league and the match against Anorthosis, it’s always tough to play on the road. We’re looking forward to the game. They’ve changed coaches, they’re playing a little differently now, and they’ve had the whole week off, so I’m sure they’ll have energy, motivation, and hunger for this game, and we need to show the same. It’s a big game; we’re looking forward to it, and we want to keep competing and fighting to reach the top of our league. This is a busy stretch of games, but if we want to be a team that improves over time, these are the challenges and games we must look forward to and do everything we can to be as good as possible.
We want to thank the fans once again. They supported the team again in this game, and here in Cyprus they always have our backs. We feel that they’re right there with us, and when they see the players giving their all and witness the level of play we can bring to the field, they’re definitely excited. Most importantly, they see that we’re striving for the best possible outcome for the team.
Because some of the things we did in this game were at a very high level, when you see the players improving and our team play taking a step forward in the Europa League—and we’re not just there to defend for 90 minutes—I’m very happy. I’m very happy to see the attitude, the work ethic, the quality, and the improvement. We know we’re competing against very good teams and players, so we’re not yet at the point where we can win all these games, even though at times we’re playing exceptionally well. But we’re getting closer, we’re improving, and that’s what matters most right now.”
