Flash quotes: Portugal 31:24 Greece

MUNICH - Comments from Portugal head coach Paulo Pereira (POR), centre back Martim Costa (POR) and right back Francisco Costa (POR), and Greece head coach Georgios Zaravinas (GRE), goalkeeper Petros Boukovinas (GRE) and left wing Christos Kederis (GRE) after Portugal beat Greece 31:24 in preliminary round group F at the Olympiahalle München on Thursday.

Paulo Pereira (POR) – head coach

On the match:
“For the first part of the game this is not Portugal, this is not what we can do.

“Second half we changed a little bit, we changed a lot. Especially in the defence because we know we stopped everything.

“With all the information we had we must do better. We know that Greece is more and more better.”

Martim Costa (POR) – centre back

On beating Greece:
“We know that Greece are a good team, a hard-working team. This was going to be a difficult game but I think we did well, we won by seven goals. Personally, it was not my best game but it is the beginning of the championship.”

On Portugal scoring only once in the first 10 minutes of the second half:
“In the second half, at the start, the attack was not good, and we suffered a lot of easy goals. But after 10, 15 minutes we fixed that and I think we did a good game and we won. That was the important thing.”

Francisco Costa (POR) – right back

On winning the first match against Greece:
“For us, we need to keep fighting, to keep going. This is the objective.”

On playing the tournament opener:
“The first match in the European championship made us a bit nervous, everything felt nervous. But we can learn from this. The next game is against Czechia, that is the important thing now.”

Georgios Zaravinas (GRE) – head coach

On the match:
“We had the good performance until 40, 43 minutes. We come back four or five times we tried especially the defence to come back. After that we didn’t have the discipline passing to have more motivation in attack.

“Against this kind of team we don’t have a person in our game to try to find the best solution. It was easy for them to take some easy balls.”

Petros Boukovinas (GRE) – goalkeeper

On Greece’s debut in the EHF EURO:
“It was intense, but that is our game. Some mistakes in the first half left us behind with four goals. We spoke in the dressing room, to keep up, to go step-by-step, goal-by-goal. We managed to tie the game again, but the huge gap between minutes 40 and 50 cost us the game.”

On coming back from five goals down to level the score in the second half:
“It was huge – but not enough. We can do better as we continue in the group. We have to enjoy the match against Denmark and then target the game against Czechia, that is the all-or-nothing game. We have to see our mistakes and make the analysis to do better.”

Christos Kederis (GRE) – left wing

On his feeling after Greece’s debut:
“The feeling is that we gave everything. I am empty, I think all our players are empty. It is our first competition in Europe, Portugal are very experienced. They gave us a bit of space for 45 minutes. After that, they pushed and we made some mistakes. They win easy in the end, but for 45 minutes it was a great game.”

On winning the Player of the Match award:
“We know who we are, we know where we come from. The award is a dream for me, it’s amazing. I always watched this kind of games on YouTube. I didn’t know if that would always be a dream, but now I am 29 and I am standing here. I have to thank my teammates for giving me the passes – I am a wing.”