José Luis Mendilibar admitted NEC completely caught him out in the first leg of the third qualifying round of the Champions League. The Olympiakos manager said so after the match to Cosmote TV.
As they so often do, NEC started with huge energy and real attacking intent. Dick Schreuder had already said at his pre-match press conference that he had no intention of moving away from his style of play, not even with temperatures above 30 degrees. Even so, Olympiakos were taken aback on Tuesday evening.
"It was really something we had not expected," Mendilibar said. "We even said in training yesterday that this team had not scored for a while and we discussed who might score," was his remarkable reaction.
NEC scored only once in the final friendly against Sevilla (1-2) and had failed to score at all before that against SV Elversberg (0-1). In the rest of pre-season, though, the Nijmegen side scored quite freely, and Schreuder's attacking style is hardly a secret. Against Olympiakos, NEC still did not score, but they did create several big chances.
"It was a strange match with a lot of one-on-one situations," Mendilibar continued. "They were better in those and that is why they beat us. They were more aggressive and quicker. We struggled to create chances. In that respect, they were better."
The Olympiakos boss was critical of his own side too. "It was a match in which we lacked a lot. We should have been more aggressive, tougher in the duels and dealt with the referee more cleverly. We knew from the start that he would not give many fouls. We had to adapt. We did not adapt to the opponent, who were more dynamic and stronger."
Despite the 0-0 scoreline, everything is still open for next week's return leg at De Goffert. "We do not know whether the match will be similar. We will have to play differently and improve many things. Because we were not good today, 0-0 is not a bad result. We expect a similar match from them, qualification is still possible," said the Olympiakos manager.