Martins: “We will go to England to qualify”
Despite playing to a 1-1 draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers inside an empty Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, Olympiacos boss Pedro Martins is still confident of qualifying for the next stage of the UEFA Europa League.
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Olympiacos dug themselves a hole in the first half when Ruben Semedo received a red card. Nevertheless, even without their strongest centre-back, Olympiacos limited Wolves to a handful of clear opportunities and took the lead in the second half when Youssef El Arabi scored from close range. However, Pedro Neto’s free-kick was subsequently inadvertently deflected into the net by Andreas Bouchalakis, meaning Olympiacos will need to score in the second leg to have a chance of progressing to the quarter-finals of the Europa League. The game took place behind closed doors as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
“We will travel to England to achieve qualification,” stated Martins when speaking to Cosmote TV. “If the stadium would have been full, we would have achieved a positive result. I am satisfied with the performance today. We played with soul, scored a great goal and created opportunities. The red card given to Semedo changed the game a lot. We boasted 80% possession against a team which is aiming to be in the UEFA Champions League. Personally, I don’t believe that Olympiacos’ European journey ended here, we will go to England for qualification.”
“We’re pleased with the performance,” agreed Olympiacos winger, Giorgos Masouras. “In my opinion, the score doesn’t reflect the balance of play, but Wolves do now have an advantage in the tie. We will go to England to qualify for the next phase. I believe that we were better than them today.”
Olympiacos goalscorer, Youssef El Arabi, believes that the Erythrolefki have what it takes to win the tie in England: “During the match against Arsenal, we proved that we can achieve great things. Of course, it will be a very difficult game, no easier than this one. We feel really confident. Unfortunately, we don’t know how things will continue, because the current situation in the world is really strange. We want to play again.”
Pedro Neto, who equalised for Wolves with a deflected free-kick in the 67th minute, praised Olympiacos: “We saw that Olympiacos have a really good team. The key today was the red card given to their defender, we had a numerical advantage and managed to create a number of chances to score. Pedro Martins has done a great job with this Olympiacos team.”
Wolves teammate, Diogo Jota, also mentioned the importance of Semedo’s red card: “When it was 11 against 11, it was a completely different match. The possession statistics weren’t the same. However, the question of who qualifies for the next phase of the competition is an open one.”
