AEL defeated Anorthosis 2-0 in their season opener in the Cyprus League by Stoiximan. The match was marred by an injury to Yannick Gomis.
After the match, Hugo Martins highlighted his team’s strong performance, but also addressed the injuries that marred the game.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Meanwhile, Nestor El Maestro focused on “La Señora’s” “poor” start to the season and the need for improvement.
Here’s what the match’s key players had to say
Hugo Martins (AEL): “We got off to a good start; we scored two really nice goals. When you score and see those fans so happy, and then life turns things around—that’s the great irony—the two players who scored got injured. And we’re very sad because Hamza and Gomis are amazing people, not just as soccer players.
Of course, we’re sad and disappointed. From a competitive standpoint, it will be a challenge for the whole team because we can’t count on them for the upcoming games, but it’s more than just that. They’re part of the family. They’re great guys—it’s very unfair. We didn’t celebrate our victory.
As for the game, I’m happy with our performance, but from the moment we gained a numerical advantage, I wasn’t happy— we had to manage our dominance, but we forgot the main goal of the match, which is to score goals. At times, we didn’t have that mindset.
But there’s a process; this is a new team—only three players from last year’s squad played. It’s a team that needs time, but you can see that we have a different style than last year. And we need to improve both tactically and in terms of our mindset.”
*The video of his comments will follow shortly…
Nestor El Maestro (Anorthosis): “A poor start to the season. We need to improve quickly and come back here next week. The upcoming games won’t get any easier.
In my opinion, we conceded two bad goals, but that’s not the most concerning part—it’s our offense, and we need to focus on that.
We were better in the first half than in the second, although we still didn’t have any clear chances in the first half—but the game seemed more balanced. In the second half, we lacked confidence, energy, and passion.”
*The video of his comments will follow shortly…
Stefanos Kapino (AEL): “It’s a very good start for the team, but it’s very upsetting that two players who are very important to us got injured.
I don’t know how bad Hamza Čataković’s injury was—it’s his knee. Yanik’s injury was pretty serious; I saw it myself from the goal, and it was difficult for us to manage the situation afterward.
We definitely took our foot off the gas quite a bit in the last twenty minutes after the red card. We could have pushed harder to score another goal. You saw how much the fans who packed the stadium supported us.
Our goal is to bring the fans back, because AEL is a truly great team, and we have to achieve something special this year. Step by step, we’ve achieved our first goal; we still have 35 matches to go to get AEL to where it deserves to be.”
