Omonia take on Spanish side Granada on Thursday night in the Europa League, desperate for their first win of the group stage.
The game will take place at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia and kicks-off 7:55PM.
Granada are the current leaders of Group E with four points. PSV Eindhoven follow in second with three points after their late win against Omonia last Thursday Paok Salonika are in third with two points, with Omonia bottom with one point, taken against Paok in Greece.
Granada arrived in Cyprus without their manager Diego Martinez due to an inconclusive Covid-19 test result. A second Granada staff member has also been affected and has remained in Spain.
“The coach is well and, as a precaution, they both get to isolate in Granada until the completion of new tests and a final result”, a club statement explained.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Omonia manager Henning Berg noted that while he respects Granada as a team he will be aiming to grab a crucial win.
“It is a European game and we have been looking forward to it. Granada are a very good La Liga side with quality players. We played two evenly balanced games so far with PAOK and PSV. We are looking forward to see what we can do against Granada”, Berg said.
“We want to be competitive and try to win. We will give everything for a good result. Granada are a good team but we will try for the best”, the Norwegian added.
On the coronavirus’ effect, the Omonia manager said that he couldn’t say how much of a factor it would be, before noting that “health is the most important thing”.
Berg also stated this game is comparative to Omonia’s previous one with PSV Eindhoven.
“Eindhoven are close to Granada. These were tight games. We had a good game against PSV who had some chances but we restricted them. Details matter a lot at this level”, Berg said.
Berg also spoke about Omonia’s domestic results, touching on the challenges of playing twice a week on a consistent basis.
“Every result is important. Against Olympiakos, we had a result we did not want. We created enough chances against Enosis and wanted to win, just like against Olympiakos, but our performance was not at the level we wanted. When you play twice a week it’s not easy”, Berg said.
“If we hadn’t done the squad changes we have been doing we wouldn’t have been able to beat Legia nor qualify for the group stage. Now we have the same points we had at this stage last season and we were only playing once a week then. Back then, fans were calling for us to do more rotation and now they are asking for the opposite. Sometimes fans are correct in what they say and sometimes they are not. We played the playoff games against Olympiacos and could not be where we are without having done the squad management we have”, Berg added.
“The league is our priority but we must also give our best in these group games. After the game against Doxa on Sunday there will be a break. Our players are competitive. Our objective is to play just as well in the league as we do in Europe. We are not too far from that objective”, Berg concluded.
