Summary: Olympiakos - Maccabi Tel Aviv 4:1/Sport1
In Greece, it is difficult to come to terms with the defeat of Olympiakos.
The 4:1 home loss they suffered this evening (Thursday) at the hands of Maccabi Tel Aviv caused outrage among the fans who left en masse before the end - but not only among them.
The Greek media also killed Olympiakos without mercy.
"Eran Zahavi, the evil demon of the Greek teams," read one of the headlines on the "Gazetta" website, detailing the history of the Maccabi Tel Aviv striker's conquests against the Greek representatives: Zahavi played against Greek teams 9 times, and scored 10 goals against four rivals - Olympiakos, Pauk Thessaloniki, Aris Thessaloniki and Esters Tripolis.
On the "SDNA" website, they described Zahavi as "the executioner of the Greek teams", and added: "He justified his reputation as an exceptional scorer. No wonder he was once on the verge of signing with Olympiakos."
On the website "Sport24" they referred to the ranking of the UEFA champions and wrote that the result in Piraeus is a "disaster for Greece", because Israel escapes in 16th place, and enters strongly in the fight for the 15th place, which gives two representatives in the Champions League. "This is a horror for Greek football.
The gap is very big right now," they wrote.
Came to Greece with nightmares.
Zahavi/Reuters
Olympiakos coach Jose Luis Mandiliber said at the end: "Too many times we don't start well in games. I don't understand why it happens, maybe it's a temporary matter. In any case, it's my full responsibility, because I probably didn't explain it well enough to the players - when you don't start the Playing properly, it is much more difficult to recover at these levels. In the league it can work, but not in Europe."
Mandiliver admits that "it will be very difficult to make a turnaround in the second game and go up a stage. We will have to score a quick goal, and score three without conceding. We have to play our football and not make crazy mistakes."
Midfielder Santiago Hesse added: "It was not our evening. They reached our goal too easily, especially at the beginning of the game. We started very badly and then we tried to recover, but they were very effective in front of the goal. There is no doubt that we need to improve in the defensive part."
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