Corberan: “The team had emotional maturity and the strength to overcome any difficulties”

Olympiacos qualified on penalties against Slovan, while Carlos Koberan was happy with qualifying for the Europa League play-offs.

However, the Red and Whites coach pointed out that there are many things his players need to improve on.

First he said into the Cosmote TV camera: “What I said to the team before the game started was that fighting spirit and controlling emotional power will decide the game. If something as important as your participation in a European competition is decided. Odds will certainly come up especially against you a good opponent.

There were terrible difficulties, such as physical exhaustion. The team demonstrated emotional maturity and the strength to overcome any difficulties. There are many things we need to work on. When I came the goal was to qualify for this round and we may have done it but we still have a lot of things to improve on.”

For getting the changes: “Often the changes work and sometimes they don’t. During the game, the team needs to freshen up and that’s why the changes are made.”.

If he remembers how many players escaped injuries: “The truth is that we need to look closely at the situation of our players. We have to look at it from all sides.”.

Whether he ordered the group to withdraw: “We played with four players in defence, but it’s true that the opponent’s wings played open and it looked like we were playing with six defenders. A lot of times that happens because someone who’s scored wants to defend what they’ve achieved. At that moment, we used a middle player to get further up front. But we didn’t manage to give him a chance to cross and we paid for that. We have a lot of things to work on.”.

For goals conceded from set pieces: “The truth is that we conceded two goals from static phases. The intensity of the opposition made it difficult for us to defend better. We didn’t win the duels and we were in danger with every ball.”