Papanikolaou: “Our guide to the second part – Defeat hurts, but it can be instructive”

Statements about the defeat of Olympiakos by Fenerbahce were given by Kostas Papanikolaou.

Among other things, he said that the performance of the second half should be a guide for his team, while he added that the defeat it hurts, but it can also be educational.

In detail what he said to the NOVA camera:

On the loss to Fenerbahce: “The match was lost in the first half. Again we started the game lazily, it was back to Fener to play their game. The balls were passing easily to our defense. We conceded 40+ points again. They are too many for the level we want to be. The second part should be our guide, with the effort in defense. We managed to gain confidence and it should teach us a lesson. The defeat hurts us, but it can be an instructive defeat, if we have the mind to take advantage of it.”

For the tension in defense: “If you play changes and you’re passive and you let the opposition find easy passes, it breaks you up. In the second half we were more energetic, we pressed on the ball, closed the paint and got the rebounds.”

For the short rotation and missed rebounds at the end: “When you play changes there is a disadvantage there and that hurt us. Hayes got an offensive rebound at 28” which was very important. We had a chance at the end. It was a very good pick by Nigel, it was the ball game and it didn’t go in. We have to move on.”

On Nikola Milutinov’s missed follow at the end: “He had a chance to make contact with the ball. He told me he had a feeling it was going to go in and he didn’t want to change the trajectory of the ball.”

For the phase with Giorgos Papagiannis in the last minute: “I saw how he followed the ball with his hands, the referees also saw that. Giorgos told me that he had not touched the ball. Nothing more happened, there was no tension. George is an excellent child. There was no tension, we discussed it, I don’t want anything to come out that is not true.”