Atromitos – PAOK: Mixed zone
Read on paokfc.gr everything that Dimitris Pelkas and Omar El Kaddouri said after the final whistle:
PAOK’s co-captain Dimitris Pelkas didn’t mince his words and spoke about off-pitch alteration of the standings, while also commenting on the exquisite combination leading to the “Double-Headed Eagle’s” opener:
“As far as I am concerned, we lead the standings. But we are unable to win the judges over… We have been performing very good football for 3-4 months now. We are so many points behind top place now, but that was not of our doing. All that was off-pitch maneuvering. Now we will do our best. In the summer we will do everything in our power to build a team that will win everywhere: on and off the field.
Our coach is trying to make us not think about what happened, not get affected, but that is far from easy. One feels cheated out of everything we earned on the pitch. Today we won and provided answers.
We have been working on this combination since September and we tried it out today successfully. My objective is to improve continuously. The Greece match helped me. One always feels better after returning from such high-level encounters. It’s important to improve, to see what is missing and what didn’t go well. I try to improve.
It goes without saying that winning the league title with PAOK is a childhood dream. We came so close this season, but were deprived of it for off-pitch reasons. Next season we need to finish off all encounters, leave nothing to chance”.
As for Omar El Kaddouri, he returned to action after his injury and said the following:
“I wasn’t 100% ready, but I feel pretty well and I am confident that I will get even better shortly.
We must keep our focus and win the remaining matches. Let us show them who the real champions are on the pitch”.