On the defeat:

«We lacked the energy I was expecting my players to have. We had problems in our passing game and didn’t take the initiative. We played something different –that wasn’t football, in my opinion. We didn’t come here to get defeated. I will try to lift my players’ morale ahead of the next game«.

On the encounter and the performance of his players:

«I could see my players lacking passion. I asked them to start strongly and focused. We created some chances in the first half –converting them depends on focus, especially when there are crosses from the flanks involved. We can’t afford having our rivals in our box unmarked. They must understand that they didn’t rise to the occasion. It was a bad day and this defeat shouldn’t have happened. We didn’t perform as we were supposed to. We have three games left in the group stage. The situation is still in our hands and we must prepare well for our upcoming encounter«.

On why Biseswar didn’t start and on taking Cañas out:

«There was a reason for everything. Why did I take out Cañas instead of Campos? I believed the latter could hold on to the ball and give us what we expected in attack. He was more participative in the first half and I expected more in the second half. In my opinion, Biseswar can’t handle three games per week«.

On the team’s overall performance:

«There is no excuse for the lack of passion. For the first time, we weren’t creative, we didn’t pressure correctly high up. We committed many errors, especially in the second half we conceded possession too many times without being under overwhelming pressure. We have to analyze this match and correct some things«.

On upcoming European games and what he expects:

«We knew that we were drawn in a tough group. Both [FC Slovan] Liberec and Qarabağ [FK] play attacking football and have good players. We knew it wouldn’t be easy. We have the situation in our hands. We play two out of three remaining games at home and it’s up to us and our performance if we will qualify«.

On whether he was affected by absences:

«That was not the reason for our defeat. Tzavellas is injured and our captain Athanasiadis is nursing a knock in the knee and we didn’t want to risk his participation. Mystakidis has a fever and was not included in the squad. The rest are OK. We don’t have seven absentees, they are not all starters«.

On the upcoming encounter against Olympiacos:

«In the remaining time, we will try to analyze things. Our rivals have exactly the same amount of time before them to prepare. We shouldn’t look for excuses and I am not going to. We must prepare well and play as we did in most matches this season, while avoiding the errors we committed today«.