AEK won 3-1 against Rayo but was eliminated from Europe. At the press conference, Marko Nikolic declared himself proud of his players' amazing effort, which ultimately wasn't enough to qualify for the semi-finals.
The Serbian coach of AEK even revealed what he told his players after the game: "You leave the pitch today with your heads held high. You should be proud of your journey and what you achieved. Keep your heads up and let's continue because we have a difficult match in the coming days."
Nikolic described AEK's European journey this year as incredible and now gave the rallying cry for the league and the battle for the title.
Here's what Marko Nikolic said in detail at the press conference:
In his initial comment, he stated: "We played an amazing game in our wonderful home ground. What I told the players was that our European journey was incredible. A team rebuilding since the summer. We must be proud, and I am happy that our fans recognized that. We created many chances, missed some, made a big tactical mistake, and they punished us. They are an experienced team that can press, open up space, and score goals. The players' effort was amazing. We must be proud. We didn't deserve to be out, but the European journey ends here. Now we turn our attention to the demanding match against PAOK. Our fans pushed us, we believed we would do everything, and we fought for the people. In this very difficult battle that was fought, anyone who saw and knows football, the match ended in the most beautiful way that only football can offer. In Madrid, the fans of both teams cheered. The same happened today. This is the best promotion that can be done, especially compared to yesterday's Champions League scandal. We must be proud of this."
On whether AEK can build on the first half for the title win: "Not just the first half. I would say for the first 60 to 65 minutes, we played amazingly. After that, we ran out of fuel. Our energy dropped. We didn't have a big enough bench for this demanding match, and we suffered. The players continued to fight, but the game went in another direction. We couldn't manage the intensity for so many minutes. We expected something like this. Even so, with a little more concentration at the end, we could have scored. Today, the statistics speak for themselves. We missed one or two good chances to score in Madrid, and if that had happened, we would have qualified."
On whether this year's run was a benchmark for the future and if today's match was the best coaching performance of his career: "PAOK on Sunday now. We need to recover. I am proud, I feel joy for this journey, but we are out now. We have an obligation to these people, and we must try to repeat this performance. We have time until next year, now we have a difficult battle for the championship ahead of us. I expect the upcoming matches to be difficult both mentally and football-wise. I want us to focus on that, and then we can talk about the whole season."
On whether Zini showed that AEK still has a high-class striker: "Besides the goals, he had an excellent performance. He promised me in the penultimate training session that he would score two goals, and he kept his promise. We have three excellent strikers. In what we want to play, strikers are very important. For a part of the season, we only had Jovic, now we have Varga, Zini, and there is competition. They are all important, they have different characteristics, and that is pleasant for a coach."
On how far Rayo can go: "They have a very balanced age structure. They have a young player and experienced footballers. Many players have been playing together for three or four years, they play with their eyes closed. Once we lost our positions, we moved up a bit too much, and they punished us. They know how to play. I have seen many of Rayo's games, I also watch Spanish football. They are a special team that plays differently at home and away. That is very clever. In their stadium, you cannot play a passing game. Now they have reached the semi-finals, everything is possible now."
On how he experienced it and what he told the players in the huddle after the match: "It was a roller coaster of emotions. Now I no longer have the ability to feel either euphoria or difficulty. I have to look to the next match. I gathered the players and told them: 'You leave the pitch today with your heads held high. You must be proud of your journey and what you achieved. Keep your heads up and let's continue because we have a difficult match in the coming days.'"
On recovery until Sunday's match with PAOK: "That's it, less than 72 hours. But you know me, we don't complain, we don't look for excuses. I'm not talking only physically, but emotionally. Those who are mentally and physically ready, because a demanding and very important match is coming, will play. Training starts tomorrow at 12:00. Tomorrow we will see how the players are, on Saturday we will have another training session, and we will remain united to give our all for a good result."