Sylaidopoulos: “We slept like mortals and woke up European champions” – Football – Greece

He arrived in Greece at noon on Tuesday (23/04) o Olympicwho triumphed in Nyon, Switzerland, winning the Youth League with a 3-0 win against Milan.

In his statements, the coach of the “red and whites”, Sotiris Sylaidopouloscharacteristically stated that: “we slept like mortals and woke up champions of Europe“, while adding that the success of Piraeus was completely fair. At the same time, he said that in Greece there is quality and good work is done in the academies.

In detail, what Sotiris Sylaidopoulos mentioned:

“If we consider that we slept like mortals and woke up European champions, I think we are good. It is a great achievement, historic. We are happy to have represented the club well. It is something unique for us that this club has 100 years of history and we have put a small stone. The future is ahead of us. It is also very important that we also represented Greek football, we helped the status of Greek football to grow abroad, whether it concerns Greek talents, clubs or Greek coaches”.

On when he believed Olympiacos would win the trophy: “It was a process. Through each match we grew, each game filled us with faith, with confidence in what we have achieved. It was a journey that apart from individual improvement, we also saw the team grow. If we look at the big picture at the end of the day, we are rightfully European champions.

We are really the only team that was unbeaten, maybe us and Real, we had the best defense of the tournament and the 2nd best attack. It is not something common for Greek teams, especially in European competitions. Through this process we grew as a club, as footballers and it helped us to look at each opponent equally and equally”.

For the team playing attacking football in the final: “We have a very specific plan of what we want to do in a match. The kids kept it 100%. At half time what we said was that we had a better performance in the 1st half than the opposition, we had the chances to score goals. We asked to continue, to stay true to the plan. We knew that there are 45 minutes and there is no going back and we wanted to bring the Cup to Greece».

For team dynamics: “We should not underestimate ourselves. There is talent in Greece, whether it concerns the footballers or the way the Academies work. At least as far as Olympiakos is concerned, I am sure of the work that has been done over the years. It is an evolving process and the best is yet to come. We must remain loyal to the Greeks, to Greek football, to the Greek coaches. And why not; You see we are not lagging behind other European teams».

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