OM: Marcelino welcomes a "step forward" from his team

Marcelino (OM coach, 2-1 winner at Reims): “We are more satisfied, of course. We took a step forward compared to Panathinaikos which was not a good match. Today we were more competitive, with more presence in the opposing area. The first period was still a little more complicated, the second was better. All in all, I think the victory is deserved. Vitinha played a very good game, through his work, his mobility, his efforts without the ball, with a lot of presence in the area, a goal, another slightly offside… He must have confidence in himself, he showed that he was a progressing player. He is young, he arrived this winter and it is always complicated to leave his country. We are very satisfied with him. It was an important match because we were coming out of a defeat. Great teams need to react quickly after a setback. We saw a good attitude, a lot of involvement and an absolutely incredible audience. It is a surplus of confidence for all. This victory helps us enormously, to believe in ourselves and to continue to advance in our progress. In the first half, we didn’t have enough of the ball and that was not our intention. But the team remained consistent and in the second half, I think we were superior. We had to have more of the ball to be more dangerous. But we still have to improve a lot of things. I would like to be able to say that on August 12 we do everything well, but it is impossible. We saw that the public was behind us from the first second. For me it has been wonderful to see this support and this full stadium. We would like to make this field almost impossible to play for the opponents, in any case very difficult.