Christos Kontis set the tone for OFI’s historic run in the Europa League group stage, emphasizing that the Cretans did not make it to Europe’s top competition just to participate.

The Greek coach spoke to COSMOTE TV about the opponents his team drew in the draw, highlighted the demands of the challenge, but made it clear that his team will fight in every game with the goal of going as far as possible.

“This is a historic moment for our team. We’ve said before that no matter what the draw brings, we’ll be happy with it and go out there to enjoy it. Obviously, both Benfica and Leverkusen are two great and tough teams. They have players, quality, and experience. It will certainly be a very difficult match at Da Luz against a good team, and at home against the Germans, it will also be very difficult.

The schedule always plays a role; it’s important to know the matchups so we can manage our travel arrangements. This is a very difficult undertaking. I’d like to believe we’ll be lucky and, after the away matches, have games at home. We’ll have to find a way to manage it.

There’s no competition we just want to be in for the sake of it. We want the Europa League, and that’s why we’re here. Now that we’re here, we’ll play every game competitively, the way we know how. We’ll enjoy them and fight to go as far as we can.

If you don’t aim high, you can’t achieve great things. We want to win; we know it’s very, very difficult. All the teams have a lot of experience under their belts,” he explained in detail.

*photo source: CNA