– From my perspective, until almost 80 minutes we were in the game all the time, the goalless result was maintained. Maybe we did not create too many opportunities, it was Napoli that created more, which – fortunately for us – did not take advantage of. At our best moment, when the action started coming in, we conceded two goals. The first – after a counterattack, after our situation, which should have been better resolved, we were then able to take the lead. Then we constructed another action after which we could equalize. We conceded the second goal straight away. Our situation has become very difficult. The third hit was a very nice shot by Napoli’s player, so we lost all hope of a good result for 10 minutes.
– I would like to thank the team for their enormous effort, commitment, leaving a lot of health on the pitch. The result does not reflect what happened in 80 minutes, because the last 10 minutes were decisive. Sometimes it is so that key changes matter. The entrances of Osimhen and Ruiz sped up Napoli’s game. We saw that if the result for the rivals does not match up, then at some point there will be substitutes on the pitch who play in the regular squad – and so it was. When we fell out of strength, we made changes, and the opponents did so as well. Their rotations turned out to be crucial. Two of our players who helped us earlier – Emreli and Kastrati – were involved in two situations in which we could score. It did not happen.
– We are returning to Warsaw sad. I think when the emotions subside, you can see that there were a few positives to our game. In addition to commitment and organization, there were also some nice elements. We competed with a great team, the leader of Serie A, which we tried to oppose.
– Loss of goals just after our actions … It stuck in my memory. Until then, everything was fine – we didn’t score, but we didn’t concede either. It was a key part of the meeting for us. If you concede a goal when you can score it yourself, and then you failed to defend a counter, it is a tremendous insufficiency and pain. We knew that when we conceded a goal first, it would be difficult for us to answer. However, we had a 1-1 action, after which we conceded a goal again. I believe that these two moments hurt the most and sit in the minds of the players, because I have already had the opportunity to talk to some of them. Apart from a short conversation with everyone, everyone regrets these two situations (Emreli and Kastrati – ed.). We knew there would not be many opportunities to score. We realized that we had to use whatever would be. We did not finalize the two most important ones, after which the opponent scored goals, after counterattacks, when there was a little more room. The changes turned out to be crucial. It is hard to blame Osimhen’s action that someone did not catch up with him. I don’t think there are too many defenders in Europe to catch up with him in this situation.
– We knew that we wanted to avoid direct duels between Manolas and Koulibaly – due to their athleticism – with our attackers. We were looking for a different solution, a way to avoid them. I think the idea with Ernest Muci as the false ten, which also came down to play, to the midfield, was fine. I regret a lot, because in the first half there was a good situation in which he broke free in the penalty area, tried to take a shot – there was a corner kick from it. Filip Mladenović was in a great position, it was possible to play optimally. We realized that there would not be too many opportunities to be in the penalty area, that there would be lunges, jumps after interceptions. And that you will have to have bright, fast, technically advanced players who are great with the football. The idea was to put as many players as possible who are good at handling the ball under pressure in a small space. We knew there wouldn’t be much space and we’d have to keep it in the game after we picked up the ball. There were better and worse moments.
– During the break we told ourselves that we had to keep the ball in play longer and more boldly. Of course, there were also bugs where we tried to play backwards. Then we moved the game in a simpler way, through a long introduction from Czarek Miszta, because the previous balls did not reach the addressees. The way to play against Napoli, which is in great shape, was to play with players who are great with the ball under a lot of pressure.
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