José Luis Medilibar showed that he has great confidence in the different performance Olympiacos will put on in the rematch against Nijmegen following the problems that were exposed in the first game.

“You’ll see our game tomorrow and judge for yourselves whether we’re better or not,” he said at first, adding:

“We have to win. We have to play better than we did in the first game and win, since the first match ended in a draw. We definitely have to convey that confidence. We have to believe in our abilities and our strength. But not just because tradition says so.”

Then, regarding what he saw from his players in recent practices, he commented:

“First of all, we played poorly in the first game. So if we’re just a little better, we’ll have a better chance. We’ve had more time with the young players and an extra week of work, which gives us the opportunity to perform better.”

Regarding the fact that Olympiacos’ players won more duels in the first match and whether he has enough changes in mind for the starting 11:

“You already knew the answer. You’ll see tomorrow. The numbers are there, and they provide some insight. They have some significance, but the numbers don’t determine the result. What I want is for us to be more dangerous, to create more chances, and definitely not to let the opponent play so comfortably.”

Speaking on behalf of the players, Ayub El Kaabi said: “It’s a small field. But that doesn’t matter at all. We’re putting aside where we are and trying to focus on our game. We need a goal. We’re here to follow our coach’s instructions. Whoever’s on the field has to score. We need to score first to advance.

I think it’ll be a similar match to the first one. Our opponent has quality and plays with short passes and fast-paced soccer. We have our own quality and our own weapons, and we’ll use them tomorrow because we want to advance.

Champions League games are tough. You might not manage to score. We’re here to follow the coach’s instructions. We have a big responsibility to bring joy to ourselves, our fans, and the team.

Of course I’m thinking about scoring. We’re all thinking about it. We’ve come here to win. We’ll do our best to advance. If it goes to extra time, we’ll do it; if it goes to a penalty shootout, we’ll do that too.”

*photo source: KYPE