Van ‘t Schip: “I am proud of the team”
Head coach of the Greek national team, John van ‘t Schip, expressed his pride in the players after the tough 2-1 win against Finland in the final match of UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying.
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Greece are rolling. Playing flowing, entertaining football, the Ethniki Omada recovered from a one-goal deficit in the first half to earn an exciting 2-1 victory against Finland at the Olympic Stadium with Petros Mantalos and Konstantinos Galanopoulos scoring the two markers. Greece finish in third place of Group J with 14 points from 10 matches.
“We helped Finland take a 1-0 lead with our mistake,” stated Van ‘t Schip. “I am very proud of the team for showing character in the second half, we continued to play attacking football with a lot of chances. The quick equalising goal helped our belief. In the end, I believe that we deserved to win this game, and I am proud of the boys for taking on this challenge to play in a different way. They have done a fantastic job until now.”
“I hope that the Greek fans will embrace this team, because the players have a great future,” continued the Dutchman. “We need support, though, so hopefully this can also improve. The World Cup qualification campaign? We must continue to improve. It doesn’t help that we won’t play for four months now. If you want to play for the national team, you must work hard, be proud, be humble and play without your own agenda. They must adapt to the way we want to play. We think that the Greeks can play attacking football, and they have shown this in the last few games. We will continue moving down this path.”
Goalkeeper Odisseas Vlachodimos wants the team to continue playing with such passion: “We really wanted to win, and we succeeded. All of the players gave 100% both in the training sessions and in the games. Moving forward, we must continue playing with this passion and attitude, we can improve further and win more matches.”
“I’m really happy to score and win this match,” beamed AEK midfielder Konstantinos Galanopoulos. “This team has passion, and we never give up. My goal? My personal target is to establish myself in the national team. Now, we have to more forward with a humble attitude, we only achieved three victories. We want to play good football which the supporters enjoy watching.”
“Following the Finnish goal, we spoke about the things which needed to be changed,” revealed attacking midfielder Tasos Bakasetas. “The mistake for the opening goal? These things happen, it’s crucial that you react in the correct manner. A lot of the guys in this team have played for the younger national teams in the past, we all play for each other. The OAKA attendance? This is a big stadium, but we need a good home arena. I think that the fans will return to the stands after watching our recent games.”
