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The two managers shared their thoughts after Thursday's final whistle.
MOL Vidi FC did not manage to go through in the Europa League, but they battled out a 2-2 draw with Chelsea FC. That was a lovely result to close the group stage. We spoke to the two managers after the final whistle.
Marko Nikolic:
"I want to congratulate my players. I made a promise in their name yesterday that we would fight till our final breath and give everything. This is exactly what we did. We can be proud as only we managed to take points off Chelsea in the group stage. I am also really pleased with the performance we showed in the last 10 minutes when our players already knew what the score was in the other game. They still fought hard till the end. We could have even won. You could say that the other group match produced an unrealistic result, but perhaps the same can be said about the Vidi-Chelsea game as well. This is football. I am also proud of our entire performance in Europe, which we have achieved since July. It is a massive thing for us and for Hungarian football. We showed an example that you can achieve this against similar calibre sides. Naturally I cannot be completely satisfied as we did not make it through. However, we will try to move forward step-by-step each year. The autumn season is not yet finished as we still have an important game on Sunday. This is the fifth big game since the international break and there was also the Hungarian cup games that we were involved in. It has been a tremendously hard series towards the end of the year. With regards to where we stand with the club and its structure? I am happy that I can be the Vidi manager. We targeted a 3 year project at the start and the end of that period was to make it to the group stage. However, we managed to achieve this quickly after winning the league title. It is also an important moment that our new stadium has been completed. I feel that we need to make very important and careful decisions about making sure we continue heading in the right direction. The plan is for us to make it to the group stage 3-4 times every 5 years. One big help will be the fact we now have 9 coefficient points. I feel the club on the whole is going in the right direction" - commented Marko Nikolic.
Maurizio Sarri:
"I am overall satisfied with the performance today, especially from the youngsters. Ampadu had a good game despite his own goal. It was not his fault in that situation. We defended the zone and the opponent managed to connect with the ball first, which was the real problem. Hudson-Odoi also did really well and both still have to develop a lot tactically and technically. They are heading in the right way. The team showed character after the second goal. It was not easy to react well, but we did this. There were many mistakes tactically and we lost the ball a lot. My opinion on MOL Vidi FC is that they are a good side that defends well, but only if they do this from deep. They make mistakes when they push up. If I need to pick out a player, I would have chosen Kovacs, but he only played 10 minutes today" - commented the Chelsea manager.
Szerző: David Rechnitzer
