Read what the coach of Nea Salamina, Savvas Poursaitidis, said after his team’s 3-0 defeat by APOEL in the GSP, which left the red and whites out of the top six.
For the game: “We prepared properly to come here and win the game as hard as it sounds. We knew that only with a win would we be in the first group and that was the goal. After all, we’ve done it before to beat big teams away from home, we thought we had a chance if we were on a good day. When he’s with ten men early on it’s extremely difficult but we didn’t start the game that well. After one point we were better, the crowd booed the APOEL players, we gained momentum, we missed a good chance, then the red came, the game tilted in APOEL’s favor. In the second half we pressed better, we had two chances, when in games like this you don’t take advantage of them it becomes difficult, then it was 3-0 and it was all over. I am proud of my players, in the last match we claimed the top six. I am proud of my partners, the world, the players. We have to find the incentives for the second group. There will be misery I’m sure, when in B group you are not on a good day there is prejudice, I hope it doesn’t happen to us, to be good, to get victories, to give joy to the world and to finish in the best way a championship that we started very well, we are the comfortable team in Group B, this should give us the opportunity to play good football, to find motivation.”
On New Salamina winning the accolade and how hard it is to find motivation in Group B: “It is a fact and we are rightly congratulated especially the players. It’s our job, the players have their role, we and the management have ours, we have to find the motivation, convince the kids, avoid bad language that this is the most important motivation and the reason to play well football”.
On whether he’ll start thinking about the new season: “To be honest I’m not thinking about next year but this year. A lot of players are out of contract, that’s a good reason to play well. We will be focused on ending the year well and when the time comes for the new year we will see.”
