Ouzounidis aiming to stay competitive in Europe, ten Hag with eyes on knockout phase
AEK Athens manager Marinos Ouzounidis demands a response from his players against Ajax in the UEFA Champions League, while opposing head coach Erik ten Hag is solely concentrated on his own task.
Point-less after four matches in Group E of the UEFA Champions League, AEK are in desperate need of finally getting on the board when hosting Ajax at the Olympic Stadium, but the club are in the midst of a damaging crisis. On Saturday, AEK lost to Panetolikos in the Super League to fall to seventh place, and it’s now become known that key men Vasilis Lampropoulos, Andre Simoes and Anastasios Bakasetas have been removed from the squad after refusing to sign a new contract. In direct contrast, Ajax can qualify for the knockout phase with a victory in Athens.
In his press-conference, Marinos Ouzounidis shared his view on the chaos shrouding the club:
Situation inside the team involving three players: “Discussions took place with them, but after no agreement was found, the club made certain decisions with the future in mind. We’re struggling at the moment, but when in a bad situation, it’s not just the players to blame. A month ago, we might have said that AEK were playing the best football, but that’s all changed now. This month, things are not going well at all, and we need to analyse the reasons why this is the case.”
Reaction to the mess: “As a club, we must keep our integrity intact. This isn’t the greatest period for us, but we all want the best for this team. I hold responsibility for what’s happened and I certainly could have done things differently. AEK is a huge club which achieved something amazing after 24 years, and it’s not easy to keep at the same high level. You have to think of the future, especially when going through a tough time. We want to make the supporters happy again and we really need them by our side.”
If negative results in the Super League will affect AEK on Tuesday: “Right now, we’re only thinking about the Champions League, nothing else. We knew it would be difficult to make the group stage, but even if we’re yet to register points, we’re improving in every game. This is our final home match in the competition and we need a positive result to stay in contention.”
Potential of Ajax: “When the tournament began, I thought Bayern were the best team in this group, but maybe Ajax are even better. They have an excellent combination of young and experienced players, and they managed to avoid defeat in both Munich and Lisbon. This will be a very difficult match, but when we’re presented with opportunities, we have to take advantage of them. Any mistakes will be punished. I want to win and still be competitive in Europe when we play the last match in this group.”
Ajax boss Erik ten Hag is focused on achieving the goal of qualification in the Greek capital:
Issue of Bayern Munich playing Benfica later in the evening: “Yes, it would have been nice to start at the same time, but that’s not the way it is and we need to accept it. Our approach is the same: we want to win, so that we’re not dependent on what other teams do.”
Injury problems inside the team: “Hakim Ziyech and Nico Tagliafico cannot participate tomorrow, but even without them in the side, we will send a strong team onto the field. We aim to win every match we play and the match against AEK isn’t an exception.”
Success in the 2018/2019 season so far: “We need to remain in this flow. That’s only possible if you improve yourself, seek new sources, and expand your horizons. We could potentially remain in the Champions League beyond the winter break and this would be a new frontier. This is what we need to go for.”
