Olympiacos skipper rues knockout blow

Following their 3-0 defeat by Chelsea FC – which ended their participation in this season's UEFA Champions League – Olympiacos CFP midfielder Predrag Djordjević acknowledged the "key moment" in the game happened as early as the fifth minute.

Game plan
Chelsea's Michael Ballack gave the hosts the lead to throw Olympiacos's game plan – which coach Panagiotis Lemonis revealed was to be as defensively tight as possible for the first 20 minutes – out the window. From there it proved to be a difficult night for the Greek Super League champions, so Djordjević pinpointed Ballack's strike as the catalyst for their exit at the first knockout round stage. "The key to the whole game was the opening goal in the first ten minutes," the 35-year-old said. "From there, we tried very hard but could not get back into the game."

Tough proposition
The London team turned out to be a much tougher proposition at home than the Piraeus club faced in the goalless first leg, and the Serbian playmaker could only underline how hard it was after falling behind so early, saying: "Chelsea are a very strong side and although we put in as much effort as we could, we could not create the chances to turn the match around."

Domestic focus
Although this was the Red and Whites' best European campaign in nine years, Djordjević said that the team's attention must now return to their domestic ambitions. "Our focus must be the championship race – we will try our hardest to win it," he said. Over 3,000 travelling fans gave the away side unwavering and noisy support throughout the Stamford Bridge meeting and Djordjević said a successful defence of their Greek crown would be just reward for their backing. "The fans deserve another title – they were great," he added.