Poor display riles Rehhagel
11 Jun 2008 - 08:08:51
Greece coach Otto Rehhagel thought his side produced a below-par display in Tuesday's disappointing 2-0 Group D defeat to Sweden.
The Euro 2004 winners were disjointed and lack-lustre as second-half goals by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Petter Hansson consigned Rehhagel's side to defeat.
The veteran coach said after the game: "Unfortunately, some players did not play at the level I would have expected to them to. They tried hard but sadly it wasn't enough against a very compact Swedish team.
"I didn't like my players in the back four playing so many passes to each other. You can play one pass or two, but you can't keep that going for an extended period and I wanted them to go forward, which they failed to do.
"We have to admit that our opponents won the tackles and had the upper-hand in the one-on-ones. They simply played more quickly and our midfield passes took much too long.
"If we'd applied different tactics then we would have conceded five by half-time. With the sweeper we played, it was 0-0 and we still had an opportunity.
"Of course we want to score goals, but I think statistics have shown that we do not usually get a lot of them. We have to defend tightly to get our chance to score. Unfortunately we do not have as much attacking potential as teams like Germany."