“It's my responsibility. It's a dark time”

• Răzvan Lucescu remains with 4 trophies at PAOK: Cup in two rows, seasons 2017/'18 and '18/'19, plus the title in '18/'19 and '23/'24.
• In the championship, the remaining objective of Răzvan Lucescu's team is to finish in second place, now occupied by Olympiakos. Leader AEK Athens has moved to 8 points with 4 legs remaining.

At the end of a marathon final, with OFI (2-3), Răzvan Lucescu had difficulty finding his words in front of the cameras: “It's a dark period. It's a shameful defeat, a shameful night. It's a bad period, a dark period. I don't know what to say, we have the injuries, I don't know what to say“.

Later, when the shock of the defeat decided in extra time (min. 105+4) faded, PAOK's coach took responsibility for missing out on the Greek Cup, with the title already a lost cause.

Răzvan Lucescu: “After 1-1 we lost our confidence, our energy”

“Psychology plays a role. We were in the lead, we had opportunities, but after 1-1, we lost our confidence, the way we showed our game. We lost our energy. We came back after 1-2, after something that was not football. I can say that we took a step back again, because the 2-3 goal was a gift.

It is a harsh reality. When something goes wrong, we lose everything, forget to play. Then it's hard for us to recover. It's a very bad time for us, for me. I try to explain it in the simplest way, but we lost the Cup. It mattered a lot”, said the Romanian technician.

Răzvan Lucescu blames everything on injuries

Răzvan believes that “this whole period started in mid-February, losing players, energy, strength due to injuries. We were playing excellent football, but with so many absences, the team became a different team. When from a group of key players several of them are missing for a long period of time, then it's different.

That automatically leads to us not being in the best possible situation and not having the best possible team. I am the one responsible and I have to manage this situation“.