However, the Croatian also does not intend to raise the white flag before Thursday’s match in Kaunas.
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“We know we are 0:3 down. I am a realist and I understand it won’t be easy. We will do everything to achieve a positive result tomorrow.
In football, you never know what can happen. Sometimes one team gets a bit more luck, opponents make a mistake, get a card, or something else happens – and then the match can turn either way,” Ž.Sopičius said before the return leg.
Nevertheless, the Kaunas team’s strategist did not hide the fact that a three-goal deficit is not just the result of an unlucky first evening. There is an objective difference between the teams that cannot be eliminated by mere resounding phrases before the match.
“Frankly and realistically, we don’t dream that we can easily beat “Bešiktaš”, because under normal circumstances, quality and all other advantages are on “Bešiktaš”‘s side.
But I say again – I am one hundred percent sure that my players will give their all, just as they did in Istanbul. And after the match, the most important thing is that we can look at ourselves in the mirror and that our fans see that we gave everything we currently have on the field,” the Croatian explained.
Ž.Sopičius did not try to hide what would be needed for even the slightest intrigue to emerge in Kaunas.
Good play from the hosts alone might not be enough. It will also require an evening where the Istanbul giant is not like the team the Kaunas players met in Turkey.
“Frankly, the opponents should not play at the level they did in Istanbul. Because when you play against a team whose budget is 50 times larger than yours and which has slightly better players, you usually need to have your day, and they need not to play as they did in Istanbul,” Ž.Sopičius explained.
His description of “slightly better players”, knowing the financial chasm between the clubs, sounded very Sopičius-like.
However, the first match stuck in the Croatian’s mind not only because of what “Bešiktaš” did on the field.
In Istanbul, the Kaunas footballers were met with an environment that most of the team had simply not encountered before.
According to Ž.Sopičius’ calculations, 95% of his players had never played in front of such an audience. And even for the 51-year-old Croatian, who has seen a lot of football, the evening in Turkey left an impression.
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“The atmosphere will be a bit more favorable for us here, because 95 percent of my players have never played in an atmosphere like the one in Istanbul – in front of 30 or 40 thousand people.
Of course, for every coach and every team, playing in such an environment is something special. But if you are used to playing in front of one, two, three, or four thousand spectators, and then suddenly you go out to play in front of 40 thousand wonderful fans…” he recounted.
During his playing career, Ž.Sopičius had seen larger stands. However, a larger number of people does not necessarily mean more noise.
“I have to say – they were wonderful fans. I myself played in Dortmund when there were 75 thousand people in the stadium, but I told all my friends that I had never seen an atmosphere like the one I saw in Istanbul.
When I was a footballer myself, I played against “Galatasaray” in the UEFA Cup. The atmosphere there was similar, but here… Madness. Madness, really.
That’s why I was very pleased with how my players managed to play in such an atmosphere. Because it’s not easy. It’s really not easy,” said the Kaunas team’s coach.
The “Bešiktaš” match schedule could also give the Kaunas team additional hope.
Sopičius watched the Istanbul team’s last match, which they lost 0:1, but he was not inclined to overemphasize the result.
“I watched the last “Bešiktaš” match. They lost 0:1, but, to be honest, already in the first half they had enough chances to turn the match in their favor and take three points.
Naturally, when you play matches every three days – no matter if we’re talking about “Bešiktaš”, us, or any other team – it’s not easy. This is the case in every league in the world. It’s normal that a team playing on such a schedule cannot always give absolutely everything in subsequent matches,” he said.
However, exactly the same problem awaits “Žalgiris” itself.
European football autumn is just beginning, and the calendar already offers the Kaunas team a marathon of matches.
“We also have to think about our championship and cup competitions. As we know, by September 20, that is, in the next four weeks, we will have to play eight matches. We will play practically every three days.
Therefore, we must act very smartly so that we don’t lose two matches because of one,” Ž.Sopičius emphasized.
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