Mainz’s Danny da Costa reports that Omonia Nicosia deliberately deflated practice balls ahead of Conference League match | OneFootball

Like all the other Mainz professionals, defender Danny da Costa was in no mood to make excuses after Sunday’s embarrassing Bundesliga loss at Hamburger SV. The 32-year-old echoed the sentiments of fellow starter Nadiem Amiri and head coach Bo Henriksen when discussing the 4-0 away defeat.

“It’s all about our playing style,” da Costa noted in the mixed zone on Sunday night. “We have to get back to our strengths. During [Last Thursday’s away win at Omonia Nicosia] we threw ourselves into every tackle and did everything we could to keep a clean sheet.

“We need to reflect on our strengths,” the former German youth international continued. “We need to focus on doing the simple things and doing them right, contesting tackles, covering ground, and being alert to second balls. The basics must be in order.“

Interestingly enough, da Costa did have some complaints about the “basics” when it came to discussing Thursday’s Conference League fixture. In this case, however, the Bundesliga professional didn’t care for the professionalism of the hosting Cypriot club.

Speaking on the Copa TS podcast, da Costa claimed that Omonia didn’t provide the German guests with properly inflated balls during the warm-up. In the apparent “deflate-gate” scandal, da Costa reported that Mainz were given 15 improperly inflated footballs.

“We came out to warm up highly motivated,” da Costa said on the pod. “And then the first and second balls played were completely flat. We were given 15 balls to warm up with and none of them had any air in them. All of their balls were pumped up to perfection.

“I haven’t experienced that in a long time,” da Costa continued. “Both teams wanted to win and get off to a good start in the Conference League. Of course, you do everything you can to achieve that. Omonia took ‘doing everything’ very seriously.

“I was really upset,” da Costa concluded. “I thought to myself ‘What the shit is this?’. I was annoying and totally unsportsmanlike.“

GGFN | Peter Weis