Katas: “It’s like the fifth game for me – We learned from what we went through last year”

THE Panathinaikos AKTOR hosted again at Hala Pioneer of Belgrade from Maccabi Tel Aviv (21:45, NovaSports Prime, sport-fm.gr, News Bulletin 247), in a match-final, since in case of victory returns the row to OAKA for the 5th and last game, while in case of defeat it will permanently eliminated from the Final Four of the Euroleague.

In view of this match, o Oded Katas expressed his confidence in his team and emphasized that it learned from its… lesson last year, when it did a “double” against Monaco but he saw the Monegasques respond and take the qualification.

In detail what he said:

For the fourth match: “I think this is a must-win game. We’re coming in with the right attitude, we’ve learned from what we went through between the first and second races last year. We have to come with the right energy, be aggressive and focused for 40 minutes. We are excited”.

On what his team needs to do: “The games were aggressive like the playoffs should be. I think we conceded easy points in the second game because they ran a bit more. We deserve to be here, I want the players to have fun. It’s a lot of fun to be here. It’s a great atmosphere, when you do that you don’t lose. In terms of energy, it’s like the fifth game for me.”

For the defense in Sluka: “Panathinaikos has many important weapons and many attacking abilities. When someone doesn’t do well, someone else does, in the third match Papapetrou impressed in the absence of Juancho. They have a lot of money and not for nothing. I think as a team we manage to do things well, thanks to our chemistry, and we managed to slow down Sluka.”

For the advantages of his team: “I think we’ve had dominant talls in the EuroLeague since Sorkin came back. We have to be very focused and aggressive. Lessor likes contact, we did a good job with him. There is pressure like in any game, we have to channel it into good actions. Let’s hope that we will come out with the desired result.”

Roman Sorkin also made statements about the match, who said: “I believe that Panathinaikos will come to play stronger. He wants to win as we do, we will prepare for a physical and aggressive game. For us and for them it is a very pivotal match. We will stick to our game plan, it will come down to who wants the win more.”