Jagiellonia Białystok begin their Europa League league phase campaign on Wednesday evening away at Olympiacos Piraeus, entering the match as clear underdogs against the Greek club. Olympiacos coach Imanol Alguacil spoke about the game beforehand.
Alguacil said his side should not dwell on the past, including the fact that Olympiacos won the Conference League, and that the only thing that mattered was beating Jagiellonia. He said thinking about what he had achieved before, or acting as though the team was already through to the final, served no purpose. He added that Olympiacos had to beat Jagiellonia and get better with every match, treating a win on Wednesday as a starting point for further work. His comments were cited by the Polish sports website sport.tvp.pl.
Alguacil's read on Jagiellonia
Asked what he made of the side coached by Adrian Siemieniec, Alguacil said he had a good impression of them. He said his analysis of Jagiellonia showed a team that builds play from the back and presses through the wings. He said Olympiacos expected an attacking opponent that would come at them, so his players had to be careful in defence, and that they needed to be efficient whenever they got into the penalty area. He called Jagiellonia a well drilled side and said Olympiacos would need to be defensively strong and offensively effective to deal with them.
Both clubs coming off defeats
Both teams go into Wednesday's match on the back of league defeats. Jagiellonia lost 2-0 away at Wisła Kraków on Friday, while Olympiacos suffered a surprise 1-0 home loss to OFI Crete on Saturday. Olympiacos have made a poor start to the Greek league season, taking seven points from four matches and already trailing their long-standing rival Panathinaikos, who lead the table with a perfect record, by five points.
