Jacob Nystrup emphasized the need for Panathinaikos to continue gradually improving its performance, putting any fatigue from its European commitments behind it, ahead of tomorrow’s (August 31, 7:30 p.m.) challenging away match against Levadiakos.
The “Shamrock” coach emphasized to NOVA’s camera that his team is built to meet the demands of all three competitions, while also emphasizing that the goal is to sustain their strong play for longer periods and consistently compete for the win.
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Here’s what he said in detail:
On fatigue following the European Championship: “I’m not worried about fatigue. We had four days and four nights until Monday’s game, and we have a lot of good players, so that shouldn’t be a problem. This team was built to compete in three competitions: the league, the Cup, and Europe. That’s where we want to be, so there are no excuses.”
On Levadiakos and what Panathinaikos needs to watch out for against them: “In every game, our goal is to improve and find our best form. The key for us is to improve as a team. In the matches so far, we’ve had periods where we played well and others where we were far from what we want. Levadiakos has made a lot of player changes, but they had a very strong season last year, and we’ll go there with respect. However, we need to stay focused on ourselves, our work, and our performance so that we can take home the three points.”
On when he thinks the team will be ready: “We need to improve in many areas. It’s hard for me to say when everything will be perfect—I’ve said that from day one. At the two previous clubs where I worked, we might have progressed a little faster, but there we had the substitutions we were forced to make here, especially over the last 6–8 weeks. We’ve taken small steps in certain areas, but we want longer stretches of good soccer, where we feel we have the upper hand in the games. Nevertheless, we wouldn’t trade qualifying for Europe for anything else, and that’s what we’re taking away from the last few weeks.”
*photo source: KYPE
