Ataman: “Difficult against one of the favorites of the Euroleague, a different match from the Super Cup”

A few days after their meeting in the final of the Rhodes Super Cup, Panathinaikos and Olympic cross their “swords” on Friday night (06/10, 21:15) at OAKA, for the premiere of the Euroleague.

Speaking about tomorrow’s “eternal” derby, the “green” coach, Ergin Atamanemphasized that it will have nothing to do with that of the final, in which the “clover” was defeated by a heavy 75-51.

Regarding the “red and whites”, the Turkish coach stated that they are one of the favorites for winning this year’s Euroleague.

Ergin Ataman’s statements in detail:



For the match: “Olympiacos is one of the biggest candidates for the title, last year they lost at the last second. It is certainly difficult for any team to start against one of the favourites, the same for a new team like us, who have 11 players. It will be difficult, but we have a very good team, players with character. We are coming from a heavy defeat in the Super Cup, it was not our level. Now in our stadium, it will be different, we will fight with the push of our 20,000 fans to win. Against Olympiakos it is not easy regardless of home, but it will also be difficult for them, it will not be like in the Super Cup. We knew we were going to play at the start with a difficult opponent, but we are playing at home and we want to win all the matches on our ground.”

If they want to prove something: “In the preparation we played 4 matches against Euroleague teams, we only lost to Fener. The Super Cup was something completely different. An important issue is that in all the friendlies we had a full roster, with Mitoglou and Papapetrou, now we have the misfortune of playing without these two important players. But it’s a long season, all teams will have injuries, it’s just at the beginning for us and it ruined our preparation a bit. I have to change some rules because of the absences.”

For the presence of the world: “We will definitely get a boost from the crowd, when you play in front of such an atmosphere, you give your best. But we have to find a balance, we will not play boxing or any other sport, but basketball. We have to be motivated but also smart against a very big team and use the motivation on the pitch. I hope that all the next games will be sold out, because we not only want to beat Olympiakos, but also to enter the playoffs. We start with this big game.”