As an opportunity to measure his strength against one of the best teams in the big division, his coach is facing him PanioniAris Lykogiannis, Friday’s quarterfinal with Prometheus for the OPAP Final 8.
“The main goal is to return to the big league. But it is quite a big deal for Panionios who won the UNICEF Trophy for the second consecutive season and through it participates in the OPAP Final 8. From there, we hope it will be a nice event, with beautiful games and to see something different. It will be a good test for us“, said the coach of the Nea Smyrni team.
“We have a lot of injury issues. We are playing with a less American, who was giving us solutions on the energy issue. The key is to control the tempo against a team that has a lot of attacking talent, very good spacing and good shooters in all positions. We have to protect our racket, play close enough and see what can happen from there“, he added.
THE Nikos Gikas he said in turn:The first place we have in the Errikos Dunan Elite League and the qualification through the UNICEF Trophy to the OPAP Final 8 shows that Panionios has laid the foundations to return to where he deserves. The vision of the management and the organization made me come to this team and because I am from Nea Smyrni I wanted to play in the team that is next to my house. The roster has guys who have even played in the National team, we are facing a team that has very good players and is claiming qualification for the quarter-finals of the Basketball Champions League. We want to be competitive against a team that has a lot of strength».
Finally, O Dimitris Kaklamanakis stated: “We want to enjoy it, to play without stress. It’s a beautiful celebration for the world and we want to be as competitive as we can. Our main goal is promotion to the big league, but we want to test our abilities against a good team like Prometheus. The preparation is the same as all the games and hopefully we will look very competitive».
Source: Sport Fm
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
