THE George Bartzokas saw him Olympiakos to beat Fenerbahce and make an appointment with her Barcelona in the Euroleague playoffs, with the Greek coach explaining, among other things, at the press conference the reason he wanted to face the Catalans.
The coach of Piraeus also mentioned the level of this year’s competition, as well as the upcoming match with the “Blaugrana”.
Analytically:
“Tonight’s match was a very representative picture of what the EuroLeague means. From the beginning of October until tonight, every match was a real battle. The quality is at a high level, the tactics are great. The event is the toughest in the world. I am grateful for the people, for the players, for the staff that we achieved the goal of the playoffs. We didn’t play well, many fell behind. We could have left much earlier, but I understand the players, they are tired. We will prepare for the playoffs.
We finished with 22 wins, which I think is a fantastic number. Everyone knows how many problems we faced and how we overcame those difficult situations. I want to remind you that last year we had 24 wins and finished first. Now we look forward to the playoffs with Barcelona, ​​without the home advantage. Basketball is the same everywhere and we have to stick together, be in the best possible physical condition to fight for the Final Four one more time. Congratulations to Jasikevicius and Fenerbahce, they played very well.
I don’t like all the matches being played together, because then you can’t see other matches. I prefer what is done now. We have a lot of good players, they have to accept that in some games not everyone can play. We will go to 70 or more games before entering the A1 playoffs, that’s so many, include the national teams in the summer. In some matches the player tells you in his “I can’t play anymore” way. I’m here to do the hard work.
This year in 18 wins you were eighth. At 17 you were ninth or tenth. I remind you that Armani Milano, Partizan with 20-30 thousand people in each match, Red Star and other teams were left out of the playoffs. This shows the level of competition, it’s blood and sand every game. I don’t know if there was paraphilology about who would want to lose, is there anyone who preferred Monaco, with this quality, with this talent? I told the players before the match that I wanted to play Barcelona, ​​not because I’m picking this team, but because I wanted to win tonight to play them.
When we were in positions 7-8, we had said that we played without key players, without Fal, without Milutinov, without Williams-Goss, without Walkup. Almost everyone is out, McKissick took six months to get fit. We tried to survive the first period, we also had a lot of births, finally we had a good second round and we enter the playoffs with good momentum. We played with our backs against the wall in difficult seats. This is the important thing.
We have played many times with Barcelona and I would like to tell you that I have many friends in the city, we stayed 4-5 years as a family there, I have good memories. There’s no doubt they’re a top-level team, we’ve lost to them twice.”
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.
