Martins: “I am disappointed with our defensive mistakes”  

Despite defeating Aris at home in the Super League, Olympiacos head coach Pedro Martins expressed his annoyance with the amount of mistakes, while Michael Oenning pointed to the missed opportunities.

Watch LIVE GREEK TV including full GREEK SPORTS coverage with Go Greek TV!

In Piraeus, both Olympiacos and Aris displayed entertaining football inside the packed Karaiskakis Stadium, with the visitors creating several great chances during the opening stages. However, after failing to take advantage of their opportunities, Aris paid the price as Guilherme and Youssef El Arabi scored two quick-fire goals from point blank range. Not long later, Lindsay Rose did get Aris on the board, however Mathieu Valbuena’s second-half penalty put Olympiacos out of sight. A neat finish from Nicolas Diguiny secured a consolation goal for Aris.

Olympiacos continue to lead the Super League, while Aris drop down to sixth.

“It was an open game today with a lot of defensive mistakes,” noted Olympiacos boss, Pedro Martins. “I am disappointed with these errors. Nevertheless, we deserved to win the match, we had the majority of opportunities. Now, we have two very difficult upcoming games against OFI and AEK, and we don’t have many training sessions before those matches. Starting from tomorrow, we will focus on OFI.”

“We came here to play open football,” remarked Michael Oenning, the manager of Aris. “Unfortunately, Olympiacos took advantage of our mistakes, but we couldn’t do the same. Olympiacos controlled the game in the second half and were clinical. The chance for Daniel Larsson? Like I said, if you don’t use your chances, you can’t expect to win. The two quick-fire Olympiacos goals in the first half made our life difficult. Were we too aggressive? No. It is not football if you just shut up shop defensively.”

Mathieu Valbuena, the scorer of the fourth Olympiacos goal from the penalty spot, was happy about returning from injury: “I am happy to be back on the pitch and helping my team, victories make me satisfied. My goal? As I have always said, I prefer to dish out assists rather than score. I really enjoy playing with Youssef El Arabi, we have a good partnership. The main thing is that the team wins. We have to be very careful when playing against OFI.”

Nicolas Diguiny pointed out the importance of conceding a third goal on the brink of half-time: “We had chances during the first 20 minutes of the match, but we did not take advantage of the mistakes which Olympiacos made. I think that the third goal which we conceded was decisive. Of course, it’s tough when key players are injured, but we have 28 players in the squad and we must be on hand to replace each other if neede. We need to be healthy in order to compete.”

“It’s nice to score, but it is not worth anything because we didn’t win,” said fellow Aris goalscorer, Lindsay Rose. “We couldn’t punish Olympiacos for their mistakes. We lost because of our failure to score more goals during the first half. If we could have scored twice in the first 45 minutes, it would have been a different game. This is football.”

Olympiacos full-back Omar Elabdellaoui is focused on the overall target: “We did some good things in this match, but not everything was great. Aris had a chance because we made mistakes. Moving forward, we must beat OFI and AEK, our target is to remain in first position until the end of the season. I am focused on helping Olympiacos win.”

By: Shaun Nicolaides

Image source: sport-fm.gr

Thank you for visiting AGONAsport.com, the only English based website for Greek sports fans across the world! Like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and Twitter for all the latest news in Greek Sports!